Michael J. Leach


Portrait of a Songbird

after Bernard Fanning’s song ‘Songbird’ from his LP Tea & Sympathy (Dew Process, 2005)

Well
i can’t help but adore
how her silver-brown hair radiates
in all shades of light.
i can’t help but adore
how her brown eyebrows curve upwards
to triumphal arches.
i can’t help but adore
how her viridescent eyes sometimes smile
beside cygnet’s feet.	
i can’t help but adore
how her skilfully sculpted nose
curves down to a tip.
i can’t help but adore
how closely those facial features align
with the golden ratio.
i can’t help but adore
how her glowing cheeks and forehead
mirror her gold heart.
i can’t help but adore
how that scar on her lower forehead 
mirrors her heart’s hole.
i can’t help but adore
how the sight of her pursed lips keeps
making me lean in.
i can’t help but adore
how her wounded  birdsongs     rise         over
ambient cacophonies.
i can’t help but adore 
how those lips sometimes curve upwards
despite all that pulls
downwards. i can’t help
but try—like some romantic—to love
this one woman
well.



Australian Avian Airtime

written on unceded lands in South Eastern Australia in collaboration with local birds and with reference to the following book:
Davies, J., Menkhorst, P., Rogers, D., Clarke, R., Marsack, P., & Franklin, K. (2022). The Compact Australian Bird Guide. CSIRO Publishing.

while here
i (over)hear

bird voices from the bush & surrounding beaches
these choir songs formed by musk lorikeets’ screeches
the strident serenity of the silver gull’s kwee-aar
the forewarning of the Australasian gannet’s arrah-arrah
the chit-chat of the eastern rosella’s chit chit 
the urgency of the willie wagtail’s chitit-chitit-chitit
the cheerfulness of the galah’s chee chee
the confidence of the masked lapwing’s keer-ki-ki-ki-ki
the loquaciousness of the budgerigar’s chatter
the boisterousness of the laughing kookaburra’s laughter
the beauty of the black swan’s bugle
the complexity of the maggie’s quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
the familiarity of the Pacific black duck’s quack-quark quarrk
the quirky nature of the Australian wood duck’s gnaarrk
the calmness of the tawny frogmouth’s oom oom oom
the abruptness of the emu’s boom
the humility of the wedge-tailed eagle’s trills
the musicality of the rainbow lorikeet’s whistles
the longing in the feral pigeon’s drruoo	
the high volume of the crested pigeon’s coo-whoo
the individuality of the little penguin’s braying
all that the Australian pelican says without saying
these choir songs formed by sulphur-crested cockatoos’ screeches
bird voices from the bush & surrounding beaches

i (over)hear
while here

Michael J. Leach lives on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung Country and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land. Michael’s poems have appeared in journals such as Cordite and Otoliths, exhibitions such as the Antarctic Poetry Exhibition, anthologies such as Poetry d’Amour 2022: Love Poems (WA Poets Incorporated, 2022), and his two poetry books: Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020) and Natural Philosophies (Recent Work Press, 2022). Recently, Michael jointly won the poetry category of the inaugural Minds Shine Bright Confidence Writing Competition.

 
 

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