Poems: Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos & Frog Chorus
Books & Poetry
In this week’s Poet’s Corner, Susan O’Brien shares poems both avian and anuran from her Fleurieu Peninsula second home.
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos
Laconic overlords
in tribal black and yellow
the Family flies out
Wingbeats desynchronised
veering left and right
deeply dipping
slowly flapping
like underwater flight
Their creaking call respects no borders
drowning other, minor songs
a rusty farm gate swinging wide
to claim terrain
wherever they fly
It’s hard to pick the sheilas –
same feathers, crests and size…
Tattoos are not an option
but only males wear red eye rings
an intimate come hither
glowing redder only
for their chosen mate
Koori colours
Ocker mojo –
If they could ride Harleys
they would.
Frog Chorus (crinia signifera)
To live is to sing to sing is to win to win is to mate to mate is to live... The cantor tunes up a tentative trill gains strength to a confident shrill The minor tenors join in they don’t have the volume but speed is on their side Overlap beats suddenly force the rhythm to a gallop Outmanoeuvred, the cantor suddenly stills. Within an instant so do they all leaving a throbbing silence.
Susan O’Brien lives half of her time off the grid overlooking the gorge of the Finniss River on the Fleurieu Peninsula, the other half in Adelaide’s CBD. Since recent semi-retirement from medical practice as a GP with a specific interest in mental health, she has started to capture her poems on the page, writing about what the natural world may present. A particular associated delight is South Australia’s produce, its wines, olives and other Mediterranean fruits. As well as InDaily, her poems have appeared in Friendly Street anthologies, and she has read at the Coriole vineyard and on 101.5 FM Radio Adelaide’s Gastronaut program.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.
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