Poem of the Day: Brown Honeyeater (Listen to Poem) published in Bimblebox Birds

Writers on Bimblebox Birds

Figbird

Bimblebox Nature Refuge is under threat from massive coal mining projects (including Clive Palmer) both directly over and under the refuge plus all around it, throughout the Galilee Basin. This means that the myriad life that thrives on Bimblebox is under threat, including the birds.

Bimblebox recorded poem:  Brown Honeyeater: Lichmera indistincta
Listen to Helen Hagemann read her poem Brown Honeyeater.  Play Sound

 

Brown Honeyeater: Lichmera indistincta


A brilliant blue, rising from a bronze morning
& Brown Honeyeaters are circling the garden.

Today, they are in the olive tree in my neighbour's
yard, performing aerial songs (although it's more a short

sharp, tweep!). Before spring, I counted two regular
visitors to our horticulture of Canna lilies, Yellow

Bird-of-Paradise, Grevillea, Frangipani, now there are
four! As if in concert, they dance, plunging to & fro.

It's balletic, reminding you of Rudolf Nureyev & Dame
Margot Fonteine in Romeo & Juliet. One of the

fledglings is as graceful as Maria Kochetkova, a
Giselle fluttering her wings, thin as the veil of a tutu.

There's fussing from parents, followed by a preen on
brick wall and hedge, a bird commotion of tutelage.

The best is their closeness, high in the branches, and now
that the young are fed and sleepy, the show has stopped.