MTC Cronin
4 poems
**
The Salty Cushion
This cushion used to be a child.
Now the child is all comfortable
.....and you can rest your head on it.
Or your feet.
You can throw the child around the room
.....and not worry about hurting it.
But the cushion is salty because at night
.....your eyes close on it.
While you sleep you remember the child.
So many small tears weep
.....onto the cushion.
In the morning you prop the cushion
.....in the open window to dry.
And you smile because a child
.....would have gotten sunburnt.
The salty cushion is a nice easy thing.
You just give it a good whack
.....when it doesn't feel right.
**
The Law of Eggs
What came first,
the egg or the law?
**
More History
More history gets made when they're living and dying. More history gets made all the time. There is an earthquake and a man walks up the steps. Hunger is abroad. Jazz peaks. From now on more history gets made. The banners are slung from raindrop to raindrop.
**
The Hope
The goat yanks on the hope and pulls.
Smart goat because the cloud's shade
moves over the water.
An old man sings of politics
while the world connects itself up.
Sixty years earlier just like five minutes ago
people were brutalizing each other.
The goat chews through the hope.
Clever goat because more time
the same is approaching.
An old woman sings understood only
by crouching and the roots of trees.
Another six hundred years and maybe
we'll have got the torture just right.
**
return to sawbuck 1.3
**
MTC Cronin has published fourteen collections of poetry (including several in translation), the latest being The Flower, The Thing (UQP, 2006) and her work has won and been shortlisted for many major literary awards both in Australia and overseas. Cronin has studied arts, law, literature and creative writing and after working for the decade of the nineties in law, began teaching writing in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. She currently lives in Maleny (Queensland, Australia) with her partner and three young daughters and has recently completed her doctorate – The Catastrophe of Meaning – described as writing on poetry, law, justice and desire. Cronin has four collections of poetry forthcoming: Irrigations (of the Human Heart) ~ fictional essays on the poetics of living, art & love (Ravenna Press, USA); Our Life is a Box. / Prayers Without a God (Soi 3, Australia/Thailand); Notebooks of Signs & 3 Other Small Books (Shearsman Books, UK); and How Does a Man Who is Dead Reinvent His Body? The Belated Love Poems of Thean Morris Caelli (co-written with Peter Boyle) (Shearsman Books, UK).
**
The Salty Cushion
This cushion used to be a child.
Now the child is all comfortable
.....and you can rest your head on it.
Or your feet.
You can throw the child around the room
.....and not worry about hurting it.
But the cushion is salty because at night
.....your eyes close on it.
While you sleep you remember the child.
So many small tears weep
.....onto the cushion.
In the morning you prop the cushion
.....in the open window to dry.
And you smile because a child
.....would have gotten sunburnt.
The salty cushion is a nice easy thing.
You just give it a good whack
.....when it doesn't feel right.
**
The Law of Eggs
What came first,
the egg or the law?
**
More History
More history gets made when they're living and dying. More history gets made all the time. There is an earthquake and a man walks up the steps. Hunger is abroad. Jazz peaks. From now on more history gets made. The banners are slung from raindrop to raindrop.
**
The Hope
The goat yanks on the hope and pulls.
Smart goat because the cloud's shade
moves over the water.
An old man sings of politics
while the world connects itself up.
Sixty years earlier just like five minutes ago
people were brutalizing each other.
The goat chews through the hope.
Clever goat because more time
the same is approaching.
An old woman sings understood only
by crouching and the roots of trees.
Another six hundred years and maybe
we'll have got the torture just right.
**
return to sawbuck 1.3
**
MTC Cronin has published fourteen collections of poetry (including several in translation), the latest being The Flower, The Thing (UQP, 2006) and her work has won and been shortlisted for many major literary awards both in Australia and overseas. Cronin has studied arts, law, literature and creative writing and after working for the decade of the nineties in law, began teaching writing in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. She currently lives in Maleny (Queensland, Australia) with her partner and three young daughters and has recently completed her doctorate – The Catastrophe of Meaning – described as writing on poetry, law, justice and desire. Cronin has four collections of poetry forthcoming: Irrigations (of the Human Heart) ~ fictional essays on the poetics of living, art & love (Ravenna Press, USA); Our Life is a Box. / Prayers Without a God (Soi 3, Australia/Thailand); Notebooks of Signs & 3 Other Small Books (Shearsman Books, UK); and How Does a Man Who is Dead Reinvent His Body? The Belated Love Poems of Thean Morris Caelli (co-written with Peter Boyle) (Shearsman Books, UK).
