Museworthy: Olive Tree
(for Demetra Christodoulou)
You saw the moon
You named it sweet
You followed the heifer
And milked her teat
I met my death
I tormented the sea
I ran the numbers
Which delivered me
Wide and blue
Where the rain sought home
We kissed the sap
Which sprang from the bone
And before I die
I'll plant the olive tree
Which will sink your palace
And bend your knee
And before you die
You will bless my sheep
And unfold my wings
For the sky to keep
For this is the field
Where the moon looked down
Inseminating the earth
With deliverance with dawn
See, child, sky of aeons, blue and white hills...
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, April 24, 2002.
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