Brothers

There are some
whose only meaning is their absence,
                                                  death.

You pretend my injuries.
You are so extravagantly me!

They are different different
like great wings living in a world of wind.

You live my life
without ambiguity, reminiscence.

They turn over the little secret animals
                                                  of a surface
trying to touch what is brotherly in between.

 

The Three-Week Goat

For twenty-one days
the rocks made a mountain
Rue grew in clumps
under quivering noses
Three eagles – one who didn't belong
eyed the circular lives
of a horde of bees
A white flower
Yes, a white flower…
At the beginning of the fourth week
entered the stomach
of a thing with hooves
which immediately entered the sky
as if that other existence
had depended on some sureness of foot
on a certain view that had purely to do
with reality's angle
with its where-you-stand take
on survival
So a breeze continued
its sightless journey down the slope
A sheep in its second year, suddenly
saw the ilex forest

Copyright © M T C Cronin, 2003

MTC Cronin has had six books and two booklets of poetry published, the most recent being Bestseller (Vagabond Press, 2001), Talking to Neruda's Questions (Vagabond Press, 2001) and My Lover's Back ~ 79 Love Poems, (University of Queensland Press, 2002). Her next book, beautiful, unfinished ~ PARABLE/SONG/CANTO/POEM, is forthcoming in May, 2003 from Salt Publishing (Cambridge, UK). She is currently working on her doctorate, Poetry and Law: Discourses of the Social Heart and lives in Queensland with her partner, a musician, and their three young daughters.