COVID Lockdown

Recorded as part of the Inspired by Her exhibition, 2026 Orana Every Woman Festival, Dubbo NSW. Written by Nisaba Merrieweather. Read aloud by Erifili Davies — Dubbo-based writer, creative practitioner and curator of the exhibition.

She looked up at me
With infinite sadness
And infinite knowledge.
She knew what was coming.
She was one hour old.
That knowledge would fade.

Her own daughter came in a Covid lockdown
So the doting grandmother couldn’t visit.
She rang me up to tell me how tired she was.
She rang to say: hey, the baby
Knows everything and looks right through me
To my very soul. It’s spooky.

By the time I could travel,
Like her mother before her
The knowledge had faded
And she was just a baby.

Nisaba Merrieweather is a Dubbo-based writer and poet, and president of the Outback Writers’ Centre. Her work explores themes of mysticism, spirituality, identity, LGBTQI experience, and marginalised perspectives, often with dark humour and rich symbolism. She has published two books of poetry, two novels, a book of short stories and a memoir, and has won or placed in more than 70 online poetry competitions. Nisaba also contributed Homecoming to the exhibition.

Erifili Davies is a Dubbo-based writer and creative practitioner whose work spans theatre, film and community storytelling. Dubbo’s Cultural Person of the Year in 2024, she was the curator and coordinator of the Inspired by Her exhibition.