supposition

the air is surely thick

with the ghosts of birds

the air is surely coloured by arc and swoop

clouded by song and call

the earth is surely syruped

with birdblood

the earth is surely torn by talon and beak

and made ragged with soft feathers

the air is surely heated by their falling

and carcasses must nest

in the cool earth.

     and with every breath

most surely,  the ghosts

of birds

origami

these words
we fold into ourselves

from the broad sheet of all possible words.

these words
we unfold at night

on a tatami mat of  breath.

behind fragile
walls we fold
into each other.

Here.  Listen.

a thousand paper cranes

take flight -

.

foucault's pendulum

the Huma bird

(may its shadow touch us)
      it is said, once it has
taken to flight
      will not

alight

     until at last it must
fall
     back


              to
        the rocks which bore it.

no perch
no roost
no tuck of
                            head
           beneath
wing


foucault's pendulum
completes no circles
 

it is the earth that moves.

gull

into a stiff wind
your impossible still smoothness
and those blades

those blades

with all their small twists, all their
twistings

it started so simply

i thought i'd let you all out

for a bit of a scratch around the garden.
the odd grub or worm.
maybe increase the egg yield.

now you get yourselves up in the morning
and put yourselves to bed at night.
i don't bother with the gate
and the six-foot fence
is no obstacle.

but yesterday
when i came home
i saw one of you walking down the footpath.

i'd swear you had your purse
tucked under your wing
and were off down the shops
for twenty Rothmans

and a head of cabbage.

and the neighbours are talking.



.

currawong ('ku)

is there anything sweeter
than the song of a currawong
full of the sound of its last kill?

september song

go to sleep.
draw the paintshades
down across your rivet eyes

go to sleep.
fold your bullseye head
under your switchblade wing

go to sleep.
let sweet lips of infant pity
kiss your kerosene tears away

go to sleep.

dream of flying.




dream of flying.