These are born in your children. They go fishing. They shake everything out. Once there were men and women who tried to hide history, to bury it in the bed of the sea where they believed sound sleep possible. Their hands were huge but not real. They were technical hands joined by wrists — flexible to the point of magic — of pure science. This science was a word spoken when the eyes could only look straight ahead. They could not peer to the sides when speaking it and would have changed to something much less certain than stone if they had turned to look behind. These people fashioned hearts from all that was directly in front of them. Now nobody listens for beats but for perfect time. It has no sound but reveals its absence in those who do not go along. They are the ones who insist on revealing what they have found.
The Glass Bear
We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big bear.
I'm not scared.
No I'm not.
The bear is made of glass.
I see through its growl to no bear.
We break it.
We cut ourselves on our courage.
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). After being employed for most of the decade of the '90s 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, 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.