Maggi Barnard

Seven minutes from home, we stopped.
Pulled over, and turned the car around
A quail, a little thing – a leaf in the gutter
Lurching from the car and watching it
Sit there in fear, looking at me.
It doesn’t move as I walk right up to it.
Bend down, and pick it up
But some jumping panic jolts it out of my hands at contact Hands that were to carry it to safety
Its wing is damaged; it only hops
In circles. Round, round, it gets nowhere.
(Am I the human or the bird in this poem?)
I crouch again.
Cover its eyes this time – see?
There’s nothing there
Cup its body-
This soft, warm thing
This solid, struggling life-
Impossibly real, sitting feeble and frozen In my hands
I could crush it in a squeeze
If I wanted to
– I won’t.
I could take it home, fill a box
With soft things and water
Let it rest in warmth while it heals
Oh, I could smother it with care
But that would kill it, as surely as leaving it.
And my parents are waiting for me.
So I take it, cross the road, and lower my hands
Under the reach of a grassy bough
Watch for a moment, and return to the car.
And all the way home, I carry
Those few seconds of life against my palms

By Jay Richards

Jason Hanley Memorials specialise in monumental masonry with more than 30 years of experience. We can create, design and install your memorial from start to finish. There are unlimited options of design, and we can create and restore your new and existing headstones to provide you with an everlasting memorial for your loved one. All our granite is sourced locally and 100% Australian.

Serving Parkes, Forbes, Condobolin and surrounding districts in the Central West. Please call Jason for your memorials today on 0428 539 043.

Our eldest son, Jim, was a really good footballer and our third son, Rodney, looked up to him and tried hard to be like him. So, as soon as he was old enough, Rodney joined the under-fives football team. We duly gathered at the football field to watch our tiny son put his best foot forward.

Rodney was on the wing and he and his opposite number became distracted by an aeroplane flying directly overhead. They stood there, side by side, hands on hips, gazing skyward, totally engrossed and blissfully unaware as the entire field of foot-ballers swept past them, first one way and then the other.

Having rejoined the game, the two little boys tried hard to keep up, even took part in a tackle or two. Then Rodney caught the ball and took off, racing down the field flat out and nobody could catch him. The whole two teams streaming out behind. It looked like a sure thing, the try line was fast approaching. He couldn’t miss, and then the coach, who’d also been racing down the sideline, caught up with the little boy, picked him up, turned around and set him back on the ground. This time facing towards the right goal line.

By Margaret Irwin

The Local Government elections had to be postponed a second time due to COVID-19 with the new date set for Saturday, 4th December.

The NSW Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock said: “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and current public health orders impacting Greater Sydney, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the Local Government elections until later this year.

Local candidate Marg Applebee said it was disappointing. “I have enjoyed spending my time working towards the election on 4th September, but I am pleased to have more opportunity now to help others understand why I am keen to be contributing to Parkes Shire as a Councillor. I’m hoping that we might have some other candidates step forward in the months ahead. You are only as strong as the team you are working with and I want our Council to be the best it can be.”

The NSW Government has worked with the Electoral Commission and NSW Health to implement a comprehensive plan to allow voters to cast their ballot safely in person, by post or online. iVote (electronic voting) will also be available for the first time in local council elections.

There are 5.2 million voters in NSW, and around 5,000 candidates will vie for 1,200 councillor positions across 125 local councils.

Nominations will open on Monday, 25th October and close on Wednesday, 3rd November. Prospective candidates can find more information at www.olg.nsw.gov.au.

• In 1896 – the first Olympiad of the modern era – weightlifting included a one-hand lift that was held outdoors. The two-hand lift (essentially what we call “clean and jerk” today) was a tie between Scotsman Launceston Elliot and Viggo Jensen of Denmark. While both of them lifted the same weight, a weightlifting jury, which included Prince George of Greece and Denmark, declared Jensen the winner due to his lifting with better style. The British Olympic Committee lodge a protest, and the two lifters competed again and again lifted the same weight. Jensen took gold but was injured. This allowed Elliot to get revenge in the one-hand lift, which was held immediately after. Elliot won Britain’s first gold medal at the modern Olympics. When a servant was unable to remove the weights from the competing arena, Prince George came to his assistance. He picked up the weight and threw it a considerable distance with ease, to the delight of the crowd.

• Lacrosse has been contested at the Olympic Games only twice. Three teams in 1904 and two in 1908. It has also been a demonstration sport at the 1928, 1932 and 1948 Olympics. Canada won both the gold medals and in 1904 also took home bronze as they entered a second team, made up of Mohawk nation players. In 1904 USA won silver (a team mainly from St Louis, the host city) and were to have a second team competing – the Brooklyn Crescents – but this team arrived late at their semi-final and were disqualified. Great Britain won silver in 1908. Lacrosse is trying to be reinstated as an Olympic sport in 2028.

By Dan Fredericks