Geoff Page: Four Poems

Two Notes

A late spring brings the male koel,

his two-note courting call

shy there in the shrubbery

but advertising all

the splendour of his sturdy genes,

the blue sheen in his feathers,

to any female flitting by

should they get together.

Eudynamys orientalis

is still his Latin name.

Rainbird, stormbird, madness bird,

his message is the same.

Two notes only may convey

the anguish in his heart.

All through the afternoon I hear them.

Are they a fifth apart?

Eventually, there’s silence and

I don’t know what to think.

Has he had some luck at last?

Is she on the brink

of her sweet seasonal decision?

Or must I, all tomorrow,

endure once more those same two notes

embodying his sorrow?

I choose to think it’s all worked out

and now foretell the rest,

that pair of wattlebirds who’ll find

a new egg in their nest

and then the hatchling whom they’ll feed

as if it were their own

with patience and a doggedness

for which their breed…