Wondrous Strange
{An Umbrella Special Feature}


Mary Cresswell

is a science editor from Los Angeles and lives on the Kapiti coast of New Zealand.

Nearest and Dearest, her book of satiric verse, is being published by Steele Roberts (Wellington) in 2009.

Her book Trace Fossils was first runner-up for the University of Otago’s Kathleen Grattan Award and is being considered for publication by the university press.

The title of this poem alludes to an episode in Winnie the Pooh.


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Trespassers W

Trespassers will be envisaged. They will be made into faces and stuck along the walls
            at regular intervals.
Trespassers will be empathized. We will know their destination before they do, and we
            will tell them which road to take.
Trespassers will be ostracized. They will grow long necks and feathers, and they will
            have the kick of a mule.
Trespassers will be encapsulated. They will be made into woolly hats and get stuffed
            between the walls for comfort in winter.
Trespassers will be emulated. They will be sent to Australia, farmed for meat, and bear
            fresh eggs for starving miners.
Trespassers will be pasteurized. They will be raised to an ideal temperature and then
           put out to grass.
Trespassers will be exacerbated. They will be picked up when they turn red and made
            into maple leaves forever.
Trespassers will be liberated. They will be bound between two covers and placed on a
            bookshelf to show how things used to be.
Trespassers will be rebarbarated. Their beards will be shaved off and glued back
           above their ears, around the backs of their heads. Then they will be ready to
           serve on committees.
Trespassers incapable or unwilling to cooperate in the growing of beards
            will undergo a bridging course to be instructed in approved techniques for 
            constructing beards out of material from the paper shredder.
Trespassers will be disambiguated. They will be turned into tigers and run around the
            pancake trees until they turn into melted butter.