Meera Atkinson
Mournful in the mulga and mallee, long-noted
longing, then a skip of hot jazz through the Galilee
Terrestrial presence, not hiding, not seen
the woodland becomes its own language
olive-bronze, metallic sheen, cream buff-bellied,
eyes tiny coins of ebony, white brow and
the black
stripe
coal, night
that steals the domed nest
a planetarium, deep space
beneath which all life stirs (feathered, beaked)
where a dark egg is laid in the heart
This poem was written for Bimblebox 153 Birds, a creative exploration of the bird species that inhabit the Bimblebox Nature Refuge, currently under threat from coal mining. http://www.bimbleboxartproject.com
Meera Atkinson is a Sydney-based writer, poet and scholar. Her work has appeared in over sixty publications, including Best Australian Stories 2007, Best Australian Poems 2010, and Griffith REVIEW. Meera has a PhD from the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University and is co-editor of Traumatic Affect (2013), an international volume of academic essays exploring the nexus of trauma and affect.