Swizzle Stick

Birds in my Garden

the pale silhouette of a neighbour’s dying tree
features cockatoos like costume jewellery

while across my yellow-green lawn
a king parrot is gleaner, feasting on seed

brotherly magpies warble & carol & sing
in their minstrel suits in the bay tree

while ich birdy-bird, who I cannot identify,
declares ich birdy-bird! Ich birdy-bird! from the fence

these days simple walking brings secret lists of pain;
I watch blood-red rosellas flit over my garden

with gentle feathered envy in my too-hot coffee,
in my garden, I am tethered, small & grounded