Drawing by Judith Wolfe

ANN NADGE /

Two Poems



    Cinema Paradiso

    -Pre-digital-

    In the old days at the movies
    There were three shows going on at once
    As you curled into leather clad seats
    Picking the studs down the sides

    There was the first show
    On the altar screen in front of you -
    Some exodus for the mind, reeling you in
    Only because it was Saturday

    And beyond that, in the screen of your mind
    Were the edited bits, the unused footage
    Coming together by craft or neglect
    - A film of parts greater than whole

    And beyond that the greatest show on earth -
    Light particles dancing with dust
    In a shafted energy of their own
    Oblivious it seemed, to their starring role

    In the longest shot of all-
    Projecting the art of one mind
    To the silver screen and back
    Into some other mind's eye

    Taking Stock

    Kangaroo census : Flinders Ranges, South Australia

    We walked there for days
    Through outback spine of spinifex
    Tallying grey kangaroos

    At night we were still,
    Silenced by all that is

    But in day's brightness
    We snaked sideways
    With measured stride and distance between

    Up and down valleys and ridges –
    No gaps in our seeing
    And none in theirs

    As they lumbered through our ranks
    Surprised only
    By the ease of passing behind

    And with measured stride, no distance between
    That deception still walks with me-
    False peace before bloody cull

    History's usual camouflage


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