Poetry

Another Redistribution I See

Lyle Dunne

TRANSPLANT doctors would be able to retrieve organs from people whose heart and
circulation have ceased irreversibly but who have not been certified brain dead, under a draft NSW policy that could increase the availability of kidneys and other organs by as much as 15 per cent.
—Sydney Morning Herald, St Valentine’s Day 2007

Another redistribution I see:
The boundary between New South Wales and the afterlife
Has been re-drawn
And an unknown number of former citizens
Are entered on another roll.

The lands from Lastbreath to the Great Divide
—A marginal constituency, at best
Are forfeit to the other side.
—No great distance, really:
You could cross it in a heartbeat.
And, swinging, informal, or loyal party voters
Will lose their representatives
—Will be, as it were, dismembered.

You hope not to join them, you say?
Don’t hold your breath.

But in this there may be comfort:
No matter how they redistribute the parts
To prolong their tenure
Nothing endures:
In the end, we will all be candidates
For that other seat.

Lyle Dunne