Poems
Python paean
let us praise the carpet snake
for appearing early morning
to a butcher bird alarm
in the tuckeroo tree
praise it for staying out of range
but low enough to be admired
and for displaying its tessellated splendour
until just after the visitors leave
praise its excursion to the kangaroo vine
via a brief detour into next door's yard
at the very moment when the boy
comes looking for his ball
praise its leisurely progress
measuring itself along the garden wall
so that its sighting
can be recounted accurately
praise the snake
for ascending to the
crown of the lilly-pilly
stirring the leaves with not-wind
let us praise its unhasty speed
its harmonious colouring
its unperturbed awareness
its consummate wordlessness
Kindred Creatures
vagrant birds
all around this town
birds are misplacing themselves
a bush thick-knee
with amber headlamp eyes
skulks on a tennis court
a scaly lorikeet squats in the road
then vanishes under the belly of a car
a sacred kingfisher
bereft of its power
to calm wind and wave
slams into the kitchen window
while a purple-winged ibis
that bird of wisdom and learning
pokes in a desultory way
at a suburban grass verge
why is a peewee
sitting on the sideboard
and why do i
an alien creature
from snow heavy skies
sprawl in the shade
of a drooping banana tree
and say i am at home
where geckoes bicker
and summer heat makes
barking owls
of us all