The Conversations

The Conversations - meaning Summary

Odd Facts and Human Nature

Les Murray's poem strings peculiar facts, myths and animal behaviors into a loose catalogue that returns to the refrain about the full moon. It links bodily vulnerability, sexual appetite, medical oddities and cultural taboos to show how facts operate like small faiths shaping human perception. The tone is bemused and observational, suggesting that strange truths and beliefs coexist, recurring through images of nature, history and bodily experience.

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A full moon always rises at sunset and a person is taller at night. Many fear their phobias more than death. The glass King of France feared he'd shatter. Chinese eunuchs kept their testes in spirit. Your brain can bleed from a sneeze-breath. A full moon always rises at sunset and a person is taller when prone. Donald Duck was once banned in Finland because he didn't wear trousers, his loins were feather-girt like Daisy's but no ostrich hides its head in sand. The cure for scurvy was found then long lost through medical theory. The Beginning is a steady white sound. The full moon rises at sunset and lemurs and capuchin monkeys pass a millipede round to get off on its powerful secretions. Mouthing it they wriggle in bliss on the ground. This heart of a groomed horse slows down. A fact is a small compact faith, a sense-datum to beasts, a power to man even if true, even while true - we read these laws in Isaac Neurone. One woman had sixty-nine children. Some lions mate fifty times a day. Napoleon had a victory addiction. A full moon always rises at sunset. Soldiers now can get in the family way.