MTC Cronin

Andrew Burke
Jen Crawford
MTC Cronin
Del Ray Cross
Laurie Duggan
kari edwards
Michael Farrell
William Fox
Angela Gardner
Kristin Hannaford
Jill Jones
Jayne Fenton Keane
S.K. Kelen
John Leonard
Anthony Lynch
Aoife Mannix
Chris Mansell
Heather Matthew
Peter Minter
Brendan Ryan
Jaya Savige
Gerald Schwartz
Lawrence Upton
Les Wicks
Tim Yu

Duty, Related to 'Death'

Marking out how many
                                   days are left
by books to be read
                               not jobs done.
Duties stretch
                       beyond death.

Life, Related to 'Birth'

The child is in
                       the monster's belly.
It is born
                from there.
Come!
           Call the mother
to ask
          the hunter.

Speech, Related to 'Throat'

Through the gate
                            in language
enters
           and leaves
the voice
               before
it comes
              to the throat.

Death, Related to 'Truth'

Death
           has no place in our lives
and so we make
                          of untruth
a walking, talking
                            truth-teller.

Love, Related to 'Road'

Seventeen years on a road                                                                                  
                                         back to here,
asking questions about a lover  
                                               I have not seen.
How odd that now
                             I have just as much interest
in news
             of his brothers
                                     and sisters.

Leis 
for Stuart & Vivian (Florence) Saunders

It was standing in the garden
after the holiday
wearing the leis (arrived illegal through customs)
having your photo taken
when you fell backwards
into the flowerpatch (or was it the bougainvillaea?)
that I remember you
both already octogenarians
peeing your pants
with laughter (not incontinence)
arms around the wrinkly
bags of skin of each other
and Timmy holding the camera (or was it Jenny?)
with tears all down his face
and we dragged you out
and patted you down
and checked for bones
but you wouldn't be stopped
and laughed and laughed (a thousand orchids)
until you were dead
and the time came to bury you
and what a wonderful way
to die on a day completely
devoid of good sense (thrown into the water &
goodbye ha ha hello                   drifting back to land)

For & Against Games

My stare made the world worse
It would have been better
to cut people out of paper
To drag around a rope
with something desirable tied to its end
Instead I formulated questions
to ask the children on weekdays
Are you going to go a long way from pain?
As far as the dead who bother to return to life?
Every ant has its own feathered tomb
Every bird rigor mortis and the opportunity
to be eaten from the eyes in
Why are you practising these bodies
when they are only the great undisturbed you?
Why do you ask the wolf the time?

poet's biography ->