Michael J. Leach (@m_jleach) is an Australian academic and poet. Michael’s poems reside in The Galway Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Meniscus, Rabbit, The Blue Nib, Plumwood Mountain, the Medical Journal of Australia, the Antarctic Poetry Exhibition, and elsewhere. His poetry has been anthologised in One Surviving Poem (ICOE Press, 2019), No News (Recent Work Press, 2020), Still You (Wolf Ridge Press, 2020), and The 2021 Hippocrates Prize Anthology (The Hippocrates Press, 2021). Michael’s first books is the chapbook Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020). He lives on Dja Dja Wurrung Country and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land.

Pop Culture Portraiture

Sarah saying, “In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.”
Sansa saying, “This is my home…you can’t frighten me.”
Sirius saying, “The 1s that love us never really leave.”
Saruman saying, “So, you have chosen…death.”
Starling saying, “The lambs were screaming.”
Stephanie saying, “This is our estate Syrah.”
Sienna saying, “You’re wearing his suit.”
Snape saying, “Al w a y s.”
Solo saying, “I know.”
Someone
saying,

“Meet me in Montauk.”

Note: This poem combines lines from ten movies or TV series. These are, respectively, Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Game of Thrones Season Five, Episode Six: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (2015), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Sideways (2004), Inferno (2016), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).