Something New
April 13, 2026
Homecoming
April 13, 2026INSPIRED BY HER · 2026 · POEM · THE STORY
COVID
Lockdown
A poem about generations, distance and the strange knowing of a newborn child. Nisaba Merrieweather reflects on the mysterious intensity of a newborn gaze, then carries that memory across generations into the isolation of a COVID lockdown.
“She knew what was coming. She was one hour old.”
Written by Nisaba Merrieweather & read by Erifili Davies for the inaugural Inspired by Her exhibition.
READ
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.
“Knows everything and looks right through me to my very soul.”
LISTEN
Hear Erifili Davies read COVID Lockdown
Recorded as part of the Inspired by Her exhibition, 2026 Orana Every Woman Festival.
Written by Nisaba Merrieweather
Read by Erifili Davies
Recorded & edited by Studio 138
AUDIO
Recording to be reconnected
The original Portfolio item records this reading as part of the exhibition. Keep this space for the existing audio when located.
THE WRITER
Nisaba Merrieweather
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 covering a five-year job, and has won or placed in more than 70 online poetry competitions.
THE READER
Erifili Davies
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 curated and coordinated the inaugural Inspired by Her exhibition.
Erifili also contributed her own historical-fiction monologue, Tin Town Tess, to the exhibition.
INSPIRED BY HER · THE ORANA WOMAN
Eight women. Eight creative responses.
Continue through the inaugural Inspired by Her collection.