Metamorphoses

1.


Three ibis fossicking at dawn
beside a spectral silver tree
resemble friars, arms tucked back,
engaged in earnest colloquy.

A cormorant sinks in the stream:
lithe neck and tapered head reveal
the point of metamorphosis
from bird to reptile, river-eel.

Declining sun casts my legs' shadows
long and spindly as curlew
who blink beneath a sapling gum
as sunglare dazzles their eyes too.

Within the tower of the night
three felines lead a secret life,
their eyes like owls', or else transmogrified
to owls with catlike eyes.

Through eucalyptus traceries
of tender new-moon sickle leaves
the stars wink down, in ancient
and inviolate conspiracies...


2.


Out of the Void

You are an astronomer,
I - an undiscovered star,
tangled in the chariot wheels
of freedom-loving Boudicaa...

You are the dark energy
anticipating forms of life;
black Pegasus in soaring flight
across the cosmic void's dark heart...

And when dark energy aspires
to manifest itself as light
and spray the skies with asteroids,
you strike the spark; cold worlds ignite...


*Boudicaa - the Celtic queen who led a revolt
against the Roman occupation of Britain.


3.


Balanced on a power line,
a red goshawk in winter sun
clamps a fledgling's inert form
stolen from the nest, still warm.

The predator's curved beak tears flesh
as leaflike feathers winnow down,
the last morsel a heart, dark red,
gulped as bereft birds hover round.

The heart ingested, there ensues
a ritual wiping-off of blood
until the beak gleams like a blade:
a headsman polishing his sword.