Clark Gormley #63 Koel

this time of year you swan in like

some rich tourist and cause all sorts

of dramas for the natives

like infanticide! it might

be a culturally acceptable practice

in your barbaric backbower

but not here mate

and then we, the grieving parents

foster your kids! we feed them,

bring them up on our food, our values

and what thanks do we get? nothing,

they flock off at the first opportunity

and I don’t know your customs

back home, and I don’t want to

but round here 4am

is quiet time

and you think that you can sing?

your screeches aren’t fooling anyone,

I’m sorry, but you simply don’t have

the range, you start way too high,

the intervals in whatever obscure

Asian scale you’re attempting get smaller

as you approach your upper limit

so you stop, and then you try again

and again

save it for the nest mate

oh that’s right

you don’t have one

how I look forward to March when

you go back to wherever you came from

p. hanson, white-throated treecreeper

One Flock Party