Michelle Cahill

A CRYSTAL EXEGESIS


Reality tv simulcast behind windows each side of the esplanade
I was hung between last night’s piss-up and morning’s formalin
Covered in shambolic snow, parked cars are randomly intimate
Crystal was a raconteur of the child pornographer’s novella
A sugar glider, erstwhile, became a sequel to my daughter, Crystal
Then came manic rain, downloaded in fourteen hemispheres
Or in twelve continents where the same poems are fatally misread
By strange serendipity, the prophet texted hostages and militia
Statistics in detention prove that words target innocent civilians
A pigeon’s low swoop became a helicopter ratcheting the smog

Michelle Cahill's poems, fiction and essays have been published in a number of journals. Her first collection is The Accidental Cage (2006) and her manuscript Vishvarupa was short-listed in the 2009 Alec Bolton Prize.

 
 
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