Anna Couani #17 corellas

we moved to the sea
again and it’s great
to smell the salt
in the air

but sad to leave
the corellas behind
when they’d only
just arrived

the suburban silence
is deafening
no traffic

but in the morning
cockatoos squawking
what made me
love corellas
in the first place

the little gazebo
like a temple
white

and the flashes of white
of the cockatoos
in the fig trees

in my monoprint
the temple became
threatened

I hadn’t quite
realised the connection
at first till my friend
said, “And your mother

is in hospital.”