Museworthy: Wooden Bird

Museworthy: Wooden Bird

painted crowd; unsurprised children quietly skipping;
everyone where they are supposed to be following

the announcement of a new world — until,
into the very centre of the square from a juxtaposed tree

and sky falls a wooden bird — CLAP,
onto the approaching ground

no-one gathers about it; nobody moves differently
yet the bird has become for them all unless

unless they can stop thinking
of its heaviness while they make love

unless they can escape the way
it lies still in their laughter

unless they can imagine that bird
back into its tree

nothing flies and perspective becomes weak fed on dead
men, women and children who allow wood and birds to mingle

beyond the symbolic

BY MTC CRONIN

MTC Cronin has had seven books of poetry published, the most recent being Bestseller (Vagabond Press, 2001) and My Lover's Back — 79 Love poems (UQP, 2002). After being employed for most of the 1990s in law, she has in recent years begun teaching literature and creative writing at secondary schools and universities. She is currently working on a PhD, Poetry and Law: Discourses of the Social Heart. Her books are available by contacting her at <margie_cronin@hotmail.com> or phone (02) 9550 2918.

From Green Left Weekly, May 8, 2002.

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From GLW issue 491