Poem: Bin Chicken Meditation
Books & Poetry
This week’s Poet’s Corner contribution is from Patrick O’Donohue.
Bin Chicken Meditation
Threskiornis molucca, Australian white ibis
The torque of slow walks
and winter sun drooped eyes to
lilac symmetry.
Standing on one leg, thinking dump chook thoughts,
city ibis drift to Zen, oblivious
to commerce, to all comings and goings,
oblivious to words, even July,
as the weak winter sun pales down on Why,
oblivious to folk glued to their phones
who, also, have just one leg to stand on.
In a concrete grid of life’s set statutes,
stationary in stoned statue mode, eyes
bend to backlit screens, intent, unrighteous.
the sacred birds rest in blissed silence from
beaking green and tossed human detritus.
So, in stated codes of Adelaide’s parks,
avian saints posture as question marks.
Patrick O’Donohue was born in Brisbane and lives in Adelaide with his wife Clare. He is a member of Adelaide’s long-standing Friendly Street Poets Collective, and has been published in their Readers. Getting published is always a challenge, he thinks, “but I continue to try to make an imprint on Spacetime by growing tomatoes and writing poetry, and taking note of things in what is a difficult but infinitely interesting world”.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.
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