by Rohan Buettel

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT

a black bat with red skeletal structure
or an anarchist evangelion
sharp lines, triangular head, mecha controlled
by an unstable child tasked to save the world

from another beast, a rough hewn head
eyes high-mounted in carved red gum
teeth all pointed incisors to tear flesh
pulled-back ears, blunt snout and swollen tongue

Canberra is brown-painted aluminium rods
jagged lightning with multiple strikes
diagonal forks show fences, rooflines, balustrades
and imaginary lines unspooled in the mind’s eye

in late afternoon sun a globe glows
diamonds pink, blue and green suspended
above the road, the grass trees point spears
skyward to where it is anchored in space

where in memory sits another globe, swirling clouds
blue seas and lands floating in the same sky
then remnant shards scattered on the road below
a windstorm, the eva unable to save a world

• The following sculptures are referenced –
  La Bobine by Alexander Calder;
  Head by Bruce Armstrong;
  Canberra (large) by Nigel Hall;
  Diamonds by Neil Dawson; and
  Globe by Neil Dawson (destroyed in 1998)