Hold (February)

The Network, as it calls itself, nowadays interrupts our tram trips with Announcements. “For your safety, please remember to hold on.” This is female Network, a reassuring voice with normally more to say. Her simple instruction hangs in the air like an empty strap-handle. It’s a Zen koan, reminder that we live in the Void, even inside a rapid moving three-carriage articulated transport vehicle managed by the Network. I think of my grandmother, in February 1913, aged 14, hanging from the running board of a Fitzroy tram, and her acerbic response to “For your safety, please remember to hold on.”