What is branding? The lyrebird has created

this system & preaches it

like a benevolent ruler, emphasising freedom

of choice, speech, expression.
Its plumage is made of melody, a jingle

of colour shifting through all the seasons of the bush.

Its eyes hold the glint of water

running over a coral reef adjoining

a white beach where a single white woman

reclines in her red bikini.
Here in the heartland, the alleys of burrawong

sound with its jukebox selection of songs.

Business leaders who pass in pilgrimage

swoon in their woven suits. Some visit

only in conference-vision & wake up in boardrooms

their blissful faces enraptured by sweat.
Of course like its siblings this poet

is sustained by belief – though its purpose

is to sustain belief. It extols lifestyle

over life & is effectively invisible,

the domain of pure prophesy.
Its territory is the site of anthropomorphic excursions

& reams of market research, which

are whispered in eucalypt leaves that fall

like knuckle bones & blood. Here forms

a cartography of desire, real & potential

daily, the bird offers such & such advice.

In all the outreaches of the city,

signposts are scratched with its modulating Logos,

beautiful construct, plentiful with myth.

Truly, it is a poet among poets.

Even the airwaves resound.