#162 Kevin Brophy 'Hand'

#162 ‘Hand’

there was a crow cut from shadows

origami cockatoos that lifted from the trees

men were hunting on their knees

the bright green bird in the woody hollows

there was an emu on the airstrip, blue and tall,

children dancing on the tin and knotted wire

kestrels read the land, hovered on the gyre

they are the trembling, flying ghosts of the soul

a tree out there in the sand near the lake

—its dark and bloodred wood will make

the boomerang if we can wait for the man

to return with the knowledge in his hand