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…
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