, at some lunch table not a desk at the University of Sydney
, smoking on campus which is definitely illegal now
, opening up my old student email account
, to discover two weeks after the fact
, my ‘creative’ PhD has been awarded an ‘academic’ prize
, named after conservative Leonie Kramer
, clocking the smell of cut grass on the air
, the squawks of black cockatoos up in the gums
, how I’m not currently ‘employed’ by the University
, though I was last semester a mercenary
, a ‘casual’ ‘teaching-focused’ shock-absorber
, and will be for the next few years
, but am piggybacking the wifi to mark 57 papers
, for Western Sydney University
, while editing the Cultural Infrastructure Plan 2025
, for NSW Government and The City of Sydney
, where ‘all creativity has a place’
, while editing a scholarly paper on Earle’s Waterfall in Australia
, read through a revisionist Lacanian lens
, while skimming thru slushpiles for two different lit journals
, emailing peopling invoicing kind of keeping
, an eye on poetry tweets and the news
, neither of which are news today
, setting up an event on FB wishing I was writing a poem
, watching cops roll by on mountain bikes
, writing all my clauses as passively as possible

  • Toby Fitch is poetry editor of Overland and a casual academic at the University of Sydney. His books include Where Only the Sky had Hung Before (Vagabond 2019) and Sydney Spleen (forthcoming, Giramondo 2021). He lives on unceded Gadigal land.