the cool change is nice, brings a party wind over the city. A party wind gives you a sword and a party boy at the after party snaps the sword in two. how is this possible? How indeed is it Impossible.     ꕥ     Flowers are like poems about parties…… Beauty arrives but not in her chariot.     ꕥ     like when Jesus made those fish out of nothing but you are the fish     ꕥ     are you slouching toward brunswick west? are you cringing toward freedom? are you well? was it GOOD? is it ever?—     ꕥ     no real ‘POEMS,’ that’s for sure..., fictional strolls down fictional storm drains... non-fiction that's full of LIES... graffiti, meal ideas... NO poems!     ꕥ     I take the bus straight from work to the party.     ꕥ     NO VAPING IN THE LOUNGE     ꕥ     The bestselling author pads around the corner and offers us a tray of cake. Tall layered slices festooned with floral clusters and creamy whirls.     ꕥ     I loved saying that my girlfriend was in prison.     ꕥ     i only wrote my previous book of poems to quit the scholarship the university granted me it’s not easy being solipsistic daddy poems fail from the sky & you can too     ꕥ     YOU’RE NOT PLANNING TO BECOME A POET ARE YOU     ꕥ     get glum whenever i picture my teenage self walking in and out of rooms at parties looking at people i knew &/or didn’t know then walking into the ill-lit gardens of those parties & looking at more people i knew &/or didn’t know & then stepping back into those rooms at parties & looking intently at the people i had looked at before now laughing w/ the other people i knew &/or didn’t know in harsh light it’s the same as the current me that walks into pubs & looks intently at grown-ups i know &/or don’t know / the me who walks into parks at dusk & looks at more grown-ups laughing w/ other grown-ups i know &/or don’t know the me that spirits back into those pubs and looks maybe less intently    a dim globe / so as not to freak them out as they too laugh & carry on being other people     ꕥ     Aye yah, sally die, larping Toorak homo, Arabunna metal lira.     ꕥ     Aye yah, try aye: ‘L,’ sepo dealer, oz cure, me dad Laz. Multi-tuzla?     ꕥ     yes! the government sucks!     ꕥ     I’m attending two separate parties tomorrow, and so is Leah, which I learned this morning when we exchanged trinkets, and walked around the park. I was gifted a fancy lychee coconut water and Leah got an orange (in surplus from a produce box delivery) and a third of a yard of scrap fabric I found in a bin at a store in Haight Ashbery over a year ago, which had been sitting in my knitting box all this time. Life is not a party, it’s a bitch and then you die, that’s why we get high, according to Nas or Elzhi if that’s the version you have      ꕥ    The detective observed unopened beer bottles in a bathtub consistent with the bathtub being used as an ice bucket for a party      ꕥ    What is this need to spend thousands of dollars to come to the other side of the world to disagree with people about literature? Aren’t there plenty of people to disagree with at home? Wouldn’t it be better to lie alone in a studio listening to streamed music that costs little or nothing?     ꕥ     


INDEX
2018–PRESENT


YEARMONTH  LOCATIONEVENTREADERS
2025Oct 
Prowse House
‘Halloween’ PartyPatrick Hunn, Abigail Fisher, Manisha Anjali, Daniel Holmes, Sophia Walsh (FR), Eli McLean, Miriam Webster

2025
Jun
Collingwood House
Party Report IIIEvelyn Araluen, Freya Daly Sadgrove (Syd/NZ), Lucy Van, Michael Farrell, Sian Vate, Dana Mitchell, Ruby Connor, Rosie Funder, Ouyang Yu, Panda Wong

2024Mar
Collingwood House
Michael Winkler, Sophia Walsh (FR), Andre Dao, Kasumi Borczyk (Syd), Ender Baskan, Harry Reid, Ursula Robinson-Shaw, Gareth Morgan

2023
Oct
Collingwood House
Kat Gibson, Kat Botten, Lucy Van, Emma Lew (absent)

2023
May
Collingwood House
Party Report IIAutumn Royal, Aurelia Guo (UK), Cameron Hurst, Elena Gomez

2023
Feb
Collingwood House
Party Report IMichael Farrell, Panda Wong, Chelsea Hart

2022Oct 
KINGS Artist-Run
  Ouyang Yu, Ender Baskan, Kat Capel, Elese Dowden

2021AprRadical Coffee, Trades Hall Prithvi Varatharajan, Ling Toong, Bella Li, Khalid Warsame, Alice Allan, Abigail Fisher
2020FebThe GasoTim Wright, Neika Lehman, Magic Steven, Caroline Williamson
2019DecThe GasoGig Ryan, Nguyen Tien Hoang, Autumn Royal
2019DecSeventh GallerySL x IMMIHannah Wu, Alex Hollis, Scott Robinson
2019NovArena ProjectsLong Service LeaveToby Fitch (Syd), Patrick Hunn, Lucy Van, Vidya Rajan, Cosmo Varty, Alastair Baldwin, Michael Farrell
2019OctThe GasoCher Tan, Alice Allan, Jennifer MacKenzie
2019AugThe GasoLucy Van, Else Fitzgerald, Louis Klee (Canberra/UK)
2019JulKINGS Artist-RunSpecial (with videos)Leah Muddle, Sean O'Callahan, Patrick Hunn, Laresa Koslof (video), Emma Jenkins (video), Andrew Onorato (video)
2019JulThe GasoEmerging Writers Festival 'Late Nite Lit: 'Naughty' IIAlex Hollis, Anders Villani, Eva Birch, Panda Wong
2019JulLoop BarEmerging Writers Festival 'Late Nite Lit: 'Naughty' IJennifer Nguyen, Patrick Hunn, Panda Wong, Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle, Madalyn Trewin, D. Perez-McVie
2019JunJames Lemon Fundraiser for ‘Naughty’Sian Vate, Melinda Bufton, Zoe Kingsley, Melody Paloma, Jesus Castillo (US/MEX)
2019May The GasoAntonia Pont, Baine Marie (Jetaime), Elena Gomez, PiO
2019AprThe GasoElla O'Keefe, Fiona Hile, Sam Langer (GER), Francesca Lisette (UK)

2019MarThe GasoJohn Morrissey, Bridget Gilmartin, Alena Hope
2019FebThe GasoSian Vate, Hollen Singleton, Rory Dufficy, Khalid Warsame
2018DecThe GasoAnnual LeaveZoe Kingsley, Anupama Pilbrow, Lachy McKenzie, Jack Vening, Kiara Lindsay, Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle, Melinda Bufton, Daniel Ward, Nicky Minus
2018NovThe GasoMichael Farrell, Daniel Ward, Natalie Briggs, Paul Dalla Rosa
2018OctThe GasoJamie Marina Lau, Kiara Lindsay, Ellena Savage, Ella Skillbeck-Porter, Saaro Umar
2018OctThe GasoFreya Daly-Sadgrove (NZ), Jack Vening, Anupama Pilbrow, Nicky Minus, Alistair Baldwin
2018SepThe GasoMelinda Bufton, Duncan Hose, Zoe Kingsley
2018AugThe GasoAshleigh Young (NZ), Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle (NZ), Stephan Pham (Syd), Lachy McKenzie, John Hand
2018MayKINGS Artist-RunHarry Reid, Ursula Robinson-Shaw, Elena Gomez, Alex Griffin, Melody Paloma







“I never had truck with pagan idolatry, Friedmanite economics or Lyme disease, in particular. Then I met Sick Leave.”


—Michael Winkler








© sick leave, 2025 
website by zoe