Cover -- About the Author -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- 1: of muse -- a prelude -- magnesium girl -- after 2am -- back seat driver -- on the river -- waiting for the good man -- raindrops fall in vain -- chloe in the window box -- the postman's privilege -- musing: the graveyard shift -- new farm is closed -- 2: meandering -- white stucco dreaming -- the crooked men -- falling mother sky -- brown water looting -- jetty nights -- carefree -- the mosquito room -- mudflat -- deadman's mouth harp -- it starts -- a verse for the cheated -- 1986 -- the fatal garden -- radio thick blood -- 3: and midnight... -- midnight's boxer -- surgery music -- a bent neck black and flustered feather mallee -- the gloom swans -- a black bird of my mind -- fly-fishing in woolloongabba -- shout-me-a-wine requiem -- crust -- the writer's suitcase -- midnight's plague -- labelled -- for the wake and skeleton dance -- the dingo lounge -- valley man -- cheap white-goods at the dreamtime sale -- Copyright.