Band of Cockatoos

The white of their plumage
seems a bit too white like
the polished teeth of salesmen

or the glare of the sheet
on which I jot
these observations

though they remind me of children
as they quietly collect
twigs and leaves

from around the path.
Now and then they reveal
the wattle in their underwings

and open their gravel beaks
like rusty doors
but suddenly the lead

alights and hops along
a broken branch, flares
his pineapple Mohawk

while banging his head,
rends his jacket and insists
the members scatter

to the surrounding tiers
where they join
in a punk-rock cacophony.

I hasten from the rally
push the scribbly paper
into a pocket.

Across the valley I spot them
vandalising
their angophora houses.

Luke Fischer

‘Band of Cockatoos’ was first published in Meanjin. It also appears on pp. 22-23 of the author’s collection Paths of Flight (Black Pepper, 2013).

“Luke Fischer’s first collection, Paths of Flight, is deeply alert to the signs made by birds. Fischer displays an affinity with a certain notion of the ‘natural’ world, as well as a temperament for classical poetic tropes. Birds, depicted in both mythical and parochial attitudes, populate the collection.” Lucy Van, Cordite Poetry Review.

His book of poems Paths of Flight can be purchased directly through the Black Pepper website (postage is free): http://blackpepperpublishing.com/fischerpof.html

Paths of Flight