Paperbark

 
Black cockatoo
in the afternoon

clutches a bare branch

sways
at the top of a tree.

Eagle glides by.

Worm
in the grass

seeks water
writhes

stranded at dusk.

Bugs hover
over a creek

rouse the last fury of birds
as night comes

covers hills
and shrubs

and trees.
Bats screech

thud fruit
on a tin roof.

Cicada grips its legs
onto bark

moults its old shell.

***

Ion Corcos has been published in Axolotl, Bitterzoet, Every Writer and Ishaan Literary Review. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee. He is currently travelling indefinitely with his partner, Lisa. He is also working on his first poetry collection, Like Clouds, and a chapbook inspired by Greece. Ion’s website is http://www.ioncorcos.wordpress.com