Stuck on Loop

Found under the foldaway bed, the rucksack had a transporting mustiness, like the sound of rain from inside an empty room. Unbuckling its canvas straps, it contained the following:

A pecked journal of field notes

Several flinty unidentifiable rocks, sand and sediment

A tide chart for the summer of 1978

Measured diffidence

The petrified crust of a piece of bread

A stubbed out pencil

A compass that seemed to have given up the ghost

A knotted piece of frayed chord

A slowly unsilvering square of mirror

A folded, unsent postcard of The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, which read:

Hi K,

All moved in and nearly finished nesting.

J is settling into Elmwood.

Aunty M turns 70 on the 11th of January.

S gets married on the 1st February.

All go.

Off in the Van for a few days.

G

– Mark Anderson

Joint exhibition with Mark Anderson

Rabbit Room Gallery, Ahuriri Napier

2025