Black-eared cuckoo
Mournful in the mulga and mallee, long-noted
longing, then a skip of hot jazz through the Galilee
Terrestrial presence, not hiding, not seen
the woodland becomes its own language
olive-bronze, metallic sheen, cream buff-bellied,
eyes tiny coins of ebony, white brow and
the black stripe
coal, night
that steals the domed nest
a planetarium, deep space
beneath which all life stirs (feathered, beaked)
where a dark egg is laid in the heart
'Black-eared Cuckoo' was written for the Bimblebox 153 Birds Arts Project, a creative exploration of the bird species that inhabit the Bimblebox Nature Refuge, currently under threat from coal mining. This poem was later published in the ecopoetry journal Plumwood Mountain.
longing, then a skip of hot jazz through the Galilee
Terrestrial presence, not hiding, not seen
the woodland becomes its own language
olive-bronze, metallic sheen, cream buff-bellied,
eyes tiny coins of ebony, white brow and
the black stripe
coal, night
that steals the domed nest
a planetarium, deep space
beneath which all life stirs (feathered, beaked)
where a dark egg is laid in the heart
'Black-eared Cuckoo' was written for the Bimblebox 153 Birds Arts Project, a creative exploration of the bird species that inhabit the Bimblebox Nature Refuge, currently under threat from coal mining. This poem was later published in the ecopoetry journal Plumwood Mountain.
