Order falconiformes, family accipitidae
Trees are wheeling in my dream.
Diminish to a dot down here on green,
my own face looks back up at me,
as smaller ground-hugging birds erupt –
warning shrieks from silver crowns –
choughs and currawongs harass great shapes
soaring to a higher clip above Muyan, silver wattle.
Three dots melt over Yarra Valley dazzle-pools
where a water ribbon threads low hills
with billabongs prinked with biel, the river red gum.
They climb to firestick lands,
three on their feather fingers glide
like panketye, the boomerang –
the leaf-crowns seethe on northerlys,
spring grass seas stream, the new life darts.In high summer's dreaming light,
three eagles circle whitewashed trees.
All day without a single wing-beat,
three are balanced on the air,
silent shadows first,
their wings curve to the earth's far sides,
on whisperings, on slip-rimmed stealth.
A life-long devoted pair, with juvenile in tow
still eking tutelage:
the awkward chick will earn luxuriance,
rich cape and chestnut nape,
its bushy gaiters frothing over claws.Aerobatic displays at breeding time,
the male stoops to check
abruptly when his mate flips on her back –
they link enamoured claws in free-fall corkscrew loops.
Then ragged mat of sticks.
A first hatchling tears
the second chick apart,
til every feather's gone:
bolts its brother's bone, beak and shell down.Wings hinged low,
the talons lift warm softness up,
wedge-tail splayed to brake and balance.
The back-turned toes are hooked,
front-facing claws outstretched
smack
at a hundred clicks
impale a rabbit's life.
Raptor means clasp:
dead gravity of break-neck weight
stiffens in an ice vice.The female floating fully stretched,
dives on fold-back wings:
head slung down on turret neck,
cere yellow-streaked,
the black beak hooked.
From the slipstream-whittled torso's soft torpedo,
eyes huge for body size face forward:
binoculars, eight times keener than a swallow's,
read fine prints from two miles high.Look! Aquila audax, the bold bird.
Quil fortuitous, writes death sentences
on pasture parched to summer parchment,
plummets down through its own shadow
in jet-black mid-day ink.Three skirmish up through sunbursts,
are crescent moons at sundown –
on nights of white-pricked blackness
are stars thrown up between the poles
of the kunewallin, the Southern Cross,
stringless kites still tilting to the sky.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones