BREWARRINA LOTTO
when my father was a boy he was in a large family
& he couldn't afford shoes/ he acquired the nick-
name 'bindo' from bindis which used to stick into
the hard skin of his feet/
now my father sits on
the river bank fishing amongst the town rubbish/
he sells the fish to buy lotto & still can't afford
a hat/
he says that lotto keeps him going/ & when
i come to visit in brewarrina everyone sits around
during the day/ & talks about what they're going to
do when they win the money/
when i worked in a
plastics factory in lidcombe lotto was talked about
the night before the draw/
in bre lotto is talked
about a few times each desperate day/ often before
the tickets are paid for/ 'it keeps us goin' coral/
you gotta have dreams'/
i buy dad lotto for christmas
along with tinned tobacco/ even though i know it's
killing him slowly/ but it's what he wants/
when my
dad wins lotto he is going to buy bedroom doors for
the house & white paint for the fibro/ he is going
to buy a 4WD & a big boat/ so he can go fishing in
sawtell near newcastle/
he is going to pay his two
thousand dollar debt off mastercard/ he will most
likely buy a second home brew beer making kit &
increase his garden by half/
but before he does this
he is going to have an indoor toilet/ he has been
using the outside toilet next door/
& when he gets
tired of walking there whilst he is drinking/ he
pisses on the lawn just outside the kitchen window/
he doesn't piss on the garden although he accuses
the dogs of doing this/
my dad will win lotto because
he has taken it ever since it was started & he
believes in natural justice/ but until natural
justice occurs we will content ourselves with social
security/
there is a kind of festival every fortnight
in brewarrina on pension day/ t-shirts are hung out
on racks/ children are walking along with iceblocks
& milkshakes/
balloons & tinsel wheels are held out
the back windows of cars to collect the breeze/
koories throw bottles onto the road from the royal
& their dogs chase car tyres/
the RSL is a quarter
full/ i received my pension in five dollar bills
because it was all they had left/ every two weeks
the bank manager has difficulty getting into the
bank because the doorway is obstructed/
supermarket
shelves are emptied/ the next day the streets are
empty & the town is dead/ dad says that everyone is
drinking at home/
i spent my pension in the first
hour & i'm not even paying rent/ now our household
has about ten dollars a head for the next fortnight/
the fridge is full & we've got our lotto for the
week & paid our bills/ but this isn't everything/
i don't get a supernatural thrill every time i open
the refrigerator door/
in brewarrina there is alot
of waiting around & not much happening/ dad has put
in a little but of money to fix up my e.h. holden
& he has found a few parts in old bombs down at
dodge city/
he says that when i leave for sydney it
will be time to sell cabbages again/ it will be time
to drive down past the ever spreading banks of the
darling/
where he will sit amongst the town rubbish
to catch fish to freeze & sell/ there is alot of sharp
brown glass jutting up from the dried mud/ dad
wears shoes now so i call him 'tenderfoot'/ instead
of 'bindo' | 
