Cassowary & A dream
by Stuart Barnes
[ poetry - november 09 ]
Cassowary
The inner or second of the three toes is
fitted with a long, straight, murderous nail which can sever an arm or
eviscerate an abdomen with ease. There are many records of natives being killed
by this bird.
- Thomas E Gilliard
Sister to that Roman
Goddess of Fertility
And big-hearted Isis -
But how you pair
With such austere desire
In August! A small
Clutch of pea-green
Eggs - laid, abandoned,
Only your mate will wait.
Sphinx-like pirate
Of body parts - Emu's
Tridactyl feet,
The wattle
Of the Thanksgiving
Turkey,
Helmeted Hornbill's
Spongy casque -
And like the Sphin
xYou wear a deadly mask:
One swift, deft blow
From the murderous
Silver stake at your middle toe
And an arm is off at the elbow,
Brown skin is unseamed,
Pink native entrails are reamed.
Red nape, blue face, yellow eye:
A tropical cyclone
Snaking through
Its equatorial forests:
The primary
Colours
Blur to white,
Annihilate.
Lonely, flightless bird,
Vicious and lost
As the Moray eel
In its wide
And dark deep green
Coral Sea.
A dream
snipping
a white eyebrow in the mirror with stainless
surgical scissors
braying,
making hyaena-
love
to a father's mother
maintaining
an erection
of bone
within a kindergarten's walls
lurid
waterfalls, like a kingfisher
diving through clouds into Lake Ladoga, spearing
silver fish
flares,
orange in muddy
Japanese waves,
inflatable rafts, sailors hunting, discarding clothing
subtly, a
cottonmouth striking a face,
a brown writhing inside a chest, at Fingal
repeating high school
tantrums,
shaking,
ultimately
waking with a twisted left wrist
