Bestiary

by Coral Hull

Published 4 July 2002
Excerpt from the book: "The Crow" - Australia populates itself with the darkness/ of the august born crow/ aaah-aah-aahaah the last note is drawn out and dropping in pitch/ as gold bright eyes scan pastoral topography/ for secret industry pickings far on the road to death/ in warmer months nomadic flocks of adolescents are soaring over the jarrah and karri/ in western australian craft shops/ are feeding on army grubs and grasshoppers or spilt grain in fields of stubble/ the culture of crows is innocent/ a murder of birds on the air currents/ sixty two percent dying before they are one year old/ wings float to earth like coal dust or ash/ new youngsters are crashed out beneath trees. And land becomes brighter shining out from their bones/ black crows fly on the cold front/ have brought the laughter of inland drought and now they bring rain/ shake off water droplets from their shiny feathers like it tickles/ ruined land is plummeted with wet drops/ spheres that crash at the mud's dry edge leaving rings/ black crows swoop down/ laugh like a tribe/ and wind propelled glide along the steel grey rivers of albany/ little claws drag the water's surface like hooks.