1874
Glass photonegative
Sarah Southwell poses with her first child, William, on the studio chair. Her husband, Douglas, was a miner in Nuggetty Gully, Tambaroora. Like clockwork, Sarah and Douglas went on to have a child every two years, 11 children in total, five in Mudgee and then the remainder in Liverpool.
A studio pose, something like confidence,
told to hold your baby’s shoulder still:
a tender line of hands – baby’s small and clasped,
your left hand down, lightly on the apron of your dress,
over a white collar your clear eyes
gazing outwards
to eleven children, twenty-two years of new babies.
Your body still young in layered, striped cotton
will decide these events: you will call them blessings.
Did all survive? Or, did you, like other mothers,
follow small coffins?
I imagine you each time, knowing
the onset – your body become heavy –
in that first moment, alone,
having to walk out to the stony garden,
noticing weeds in dirt along the pathway
go down on your knees, hands pulling.
- on Mrs Southwell and baby [Mrs Monmurle (?) and baby] 1874 - a2824402
A studio pose, something like confidence,
told to hold your baby’s shoulder still:
a tender line of hands – baby’s small and clasped,
your left hand down, lightly on the apron of your dress,
over a white collar your clear eyes
gazing outwards
to eleven children, twenty-two years of new babies.
Your body still young in layered, striped cotton
will decide these events: you will call them blessings.
Did all survive? Or, did you, like other mothers,
follow small coffins?
I imagine you each time, knowing
the onset – your body become heavy –
in that first moment, alone,
having to walk out to the stony garden,
noticing weeds in dirt along the pathway
go down on your knees, hands pulling.
- on Mrs Southwell and baby [Mrs Monmurle (?) and baby] 1874 - a2824402
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