This is how I see it
Black throated pied butcher bird
picking up sticks
sees bicyclist
Pied strikes like a drone in Yemen
2 metre tall cyclist
Takes refuge
under Poinciana
Juveniles join in
Kamakase air raids
triangular strafing with clapping beaks
30 centimetre birds can cower a man
Takes off helmet to expose every grey hair
now sitting on dew covered grass
afraid to leave or to shout out
Raid after raid comes in and then…
Two women with pram appear
on Milne Lane
Milne Lane
Beautiful pink baby inside sucking buttons of shirt,
Grey-hair tells them of attacks,
One woman, the mother’s mate,
says how territorial butcher birds are
Shared millisecond of concern
by all three for pink baby
blinking in morning sunlight
Mother and friend confident birds will give pram right of passage
down Parooba Avenue
Grey-hair takes flight down the road
only to come across an old lady on the path
who admonishes him
saying “Should you be on this path?“
Grey-hair pleads he is under attack,
Matron says “Well, move then!”
To defend against drone attacks
midst fluting piping mimicry
hear loud ‘zwit’ of alarm
and clapping of beaks
They nest in spring
and juveniles help out with nest building
using sticks and grass
Far better occupation
than aerial bombardment
in a sad world
When will Spring rains some?
Ian Curr
October 2012
