Rachael is a multifaceted artist engaged in writing, performance making and visual art. As a performer and vocalist, she has featured in major festivals across Australia and overseas. She has created puppet-based visual theatre for adults. Most recently she collaborated with poet Andy Jackson on Ambiguous Mirrors, a poetry/puppetry piece that toured Ireland in 2013. Rachael recently completed a Masters Degree in Theatre Performance examining anthropomorphism, transgression and puppetry. Her writing has appeared in Overland and Sleepers.

http://rachaelwenona.wix.com/disquieting-objects

Undone

a dour Mary haunts every crevice
and chipped plaster saints congregate behind
muted windows panes

on lonely escarpments Jesus thrusts his ribs to the sky
while in the foothills stone cairns tilt and endure

in backstreets, archaeological digs yawn
disgorging dust and secrets

in the museum Clonycavan Man lies undisturbed
by the incoming tide of spectators
pooling humidity and chatter in their wake.

traveller, you pass as shadow across building and field
headstone and turnpike
you stumble on the perimeters

of this foreign history.
it all looks hauntingly familiar – and now
your own country feels like a cheap imposter

at sundown you watch the wheeling rooks
they float as flecks in a darkening sky, just as they have
every evening and will forever more

and you? where will you take refuge
so far from home?