John Bennett #1 - November musings

birds not pets

‘Australia has provided the world with a remarkable range of pets, including budgerigars, cockatiels and other parrots, various finches, bearded dragons, bluetongue lizards and even the spiny leaf insect (Extatosoma tiaratum).’ Tim Low in this morning’s Australian Geographic ezine.

Birds in cages !!  Last week out west . . .

Silk scarves flying as the sun slips, jewelled wings

spinning colour, a Turquoise Parrot beating overhead,

brighter than Rainbow Bee-eaters, Rainbow Lorikeets

or rainbow. Brilliant blue wings charged by electric

current, golden belly, red flash and green shimmer

reaching the limit of colour. I felt naked.

And hundreds of Musk Lorikeets (a rarity here in Valla, we get Rainbows and Scaly-breasted). Here are two:

P.S. Cottier #25 Just now and then

I have thought
maybe I should get a British passport
because I was born there
and I cherish the idea
of living in France —

maybe on a canal boat
or maybe a year in Paris,
if I just improved my French
which is, as they say, bad.

Just the other day
I felt these maybes disappear
because a British passport
became more just that,
and a lot less attractive
to one spoilt Francophile
cherishing houseboat dreams,
and moored rather further South
than lavender Provence.

P.S. Cottier