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ARTS AND CULTURE

Power flowers

  • 10 August 2010
Litany the lilies of the field — Can they add value to the Dollar, erase the Deficit?     Will they buy me a Maserati, or a Beach House?         Could you open a Bank Account with one? the lilies of the field — Where were they when I sought     Contacts in High Places,         Collusive Handshakes,             a Leg up the Ladder? the lilies of the field — After I'd reached the Top     why didn't they save me         from Boardroom Rivals             plotting to bring me down? the lilies of the field — What solace could they offer     when my life turned against itself         & Emptiness devoured me? the lilies of the field — Cut them down, root them out.     Let them be shipped off & sold         for funeral wreaths;             crammed into gilt vases         as backdrops for the lily-white smiles      of Politicians, Captains of Industry & Media Moguls in all their Glory. the lilies of the field — Plough up the land where they grew     & spray it with poison —         spray it again & again. the lilies of the field — They were clueless about defending themselves     & now they don't exist —         so there! the lilies of the field — Relax.     Forget them.         You've won.             What's next?   Diane Fahey's eighth poetry collection, Sea Wall and River Light, was co-winner of the ACT Government's 2007 Judith Wright Prize. The Mystery of Rosa Morland, a verse novel, was published by Clouds of Magellan in 2008. Her New and Selected Poems will be published by Puncher & Wattmann in November this year.
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