It was a very quiet country
Where I lived
The president said
What to be governed by
If not a law
Can you see them standing in line
For love
My friends and neighbours
Made it clear to me
That they enter these places secretly
Their homes
But will usually come out
At any sound
They have never heard before
I just thought
It was a curfew
And wrote a book
Called “How to Deal with the Government”
I felt too easily hurt
By things
Moving too close to me
I started to feel
No matter what time of day
That it was late at night
And read the reviews of my book
With the feeling
That I hadn't read
The directions on the packet
A month later
When I was a bestseller
They came to take me away
Light the corpse-candle I said
I'm about to be told
Of women and churches
And the souls of ever
The soldiers were careful
Not to make a sound
Were cruel and polite
As they helped me in
To a stretch limousine
Watch your step said the youngest
All this trouble for the pit? I asked
BY MTC CRONIN
MTC Cronin has had six books of poetry published, the most recent being Talking to Neruda's Questions and Bestseller (both Vagabond Press, 2001). Another collection, My Lover’s Back, is forthcoming in 2002 (UQP). She is currently working on a PhD, Poetry and Law: Discourses of the Social Heart, and has recently received an Established Writers New Work Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts. Her books are available by contacting her at: <margie_cronin@hotmail.com> or ph: (02) 9550 2918.
