Drift
[2007-12-07]

animation: Lisa Roberts
Sydney 2007

sound: Jon Hizzard
Flinders Island 2003

21st. September 1955

The air itself seems an intense white,
and madly turbulent.
Drift snow settles on the skin,
half melts and then
like the sting of some clinging insect,
bites suddenly.
The pain of cold penetrates
into cheekbones and skull.
The wind clutches your breath away
and snow streams into your nostrils and mouth.
The pain of cold aches through the head
and the whine of wind rises.
The demon of white chaos seems close.

Jack Ward, Mawson diary (1955)