MTC Cronin has written numerous collections of poetry (including several co-written with fellow-Australian poet, Peter Boyle) and a number of volumes of avant-garde cross-genre micro-essays. She currently lives, with her partner and three young daughters, on an organic farm (specializing in fresh Spanish produce) in the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Australia.

The Sky According to Laws

after Nikola Madzirov

The sky according to laws passed for the protection
of those who are murdered, says nothing.

In this silence the sky invites the stones
to unpile themselves and the birds
to swallow their songs.

The sky doesn’t watch and the sky never listens.

There is no news.

That the world is bigger than the earth is not news.

That the little stream could cause a king
to create an army is not news.

That lovers at dawn are monkeys and frogs
at dusk, is not news.

The sky has no sense of them and is their entreaty.

The sky according to laws in force to discipline
the carefree, unhomes anything with a soul.

For this purpose, the sky is unified.