Michael J. Leach


Bubbles

Australia’s overinflated property bubble
warrants an effectual revolution—
a targeted socio-economic-political needle
to

                      POP

it
& bring hope to a third of the population,
including those of us
in the X/Y/Z generations

who long to stop talking ’bout first home-buying
& start settling into a first home.
So many of us long
to

                      POP

the
corks on icy champagne bottles
& host an overdue home-warming celebration
with glass of bubbles in hand. 

Pillars of Creation

Compositional note: This calligram takes the shape of a high-resolution image of the Pillars of Creation (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pillars_of_creation_2014_HST_WFC3-UVIS_full-res_denoised.jpg). NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) created this image in 2014 as a tribute to the original 1995 astrophotograph of the Pillars of Creation. The poem references lines from The Corrs’ self-penned song ‘Love to Love You’, which featured on their debut LP Forgiven, Not Forgotten (Atlantic Records, 1995). Dementors are wispy, wraithlike creatures from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

Omicron Variant

Omicron
Micron
“Minor”
Coin
Noir
No
O
No
Noir
Coin
“Minor”
Micron
Omicron

Michael J. Leach is an Australian academic and poet based at the Monash University School of Rural Health. His poems reside in Cordite, Rabbit, Meniscus, Otoliths, Plumwood Mountain, Live Encounters, the Medical Journal of Australia, the 2021 Hippocrates Prize Anthology, and elsewhere. Michael’s poetry collections include Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020) and Natural Philosophies (Recent Work Press, forthcoming). He lives on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung Country and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land.

 
 

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