15 July 2011 Volume: 21 Issue: 13 North Korea's ... - Eureka Street

Volume 21 Issue: 1315 July 2011faster than belief, faster than silence,faster than turned pages of a book,a narrative about life or death.Familial fugueMy late uncle, a baritone, never marriedreferred obliquely to missed cues.I thought I heard his young singer’s voicewhen he offered me glimpses of the past.He seemed strung too tightly, carpingabout bad government, false glory of Empirebut then, he was rain-wrapt Britishbrother of a suicide and war dead.His father apparently loved a singalongplaying his instruments with enthusiasm.At the piano our mustachioed patriarchresembled an ex-career army sergeantsummoned to subdue the locals, a manwho loved to hear a bugle pierce the dawn.The baritone’s mother quoted Shakespearepreferred her husband to their childrenplacing her faith in him, gin, and ghostsa fervid aura about her at séances.Who knows what she made of Hamlet?When she turned up breast cancer’s cardshe hugged her suffering to herself.Downstairs, her husband conducted©2011 EurekaStreet.com.au 14