(Poetry) Two Birds in a Tree by Frances Guerin

Kookaburras in an apple tree, Wheatsheaf 2020

The chi of storm wind severs the trunk

of a sixty -metre tall whitegum from its roots.

The tree crashes to the ground,

shaking the house like an earthquake.

The weakness lay in an imbalance on one side

until gravity and speed of the gale

overwhelms the tree’s drive to grow towards heaven.

In the same way, the core of a crisp apple,

cast into the garden without thought

of its latent ability to shelter

the house from the summer sun.

Soon it is full of small green apples

that attract rosellas which prefer the seeds

to the fleshy fruit, thus leaving a banquet

on the ground for thrush and bronze winged pigeon,

clever trickster currawong and blue wren.

This tree carries no curse or tempting snake,

but glorious birds on the bough as old as time,

a universal symbol for Druid, Norse and Greek,

Hindu and ancient Egypt’s Golden Tree.

An odyssey takes hold of Dante’s hand

to venture into caverns and labyrinths

and vistas of imaginings.

The two birds in the Vedas are always united.

Self and soul clinging to the same tree,

One eats the fruit while the other only looks on.

If this happens, fear is its fate,

rather than inseparable unity.


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