Photos with Poems - Notes on a dying chook
Description
In my thesis, I superimpose poetry over images of the bark, flowers, leaves and habitats of plants of the biodiverse Southwest corner of Western Australia. The intention of this visualisation is to deepen the appreciation of floristic images with poetic narratives of embodied encounters with living plants in the field. (PhD, School of Communications and Arts)
an amoeba of auburn hues
pontificating on one leg
meditatively in a t'ai chi
posture
lashless eyes tightened to slits
red rubber viscera under jaw
hung like a windless
flag
when the patio door creaked
her orange moons and absolute
black opals flashed full
embouchure
her shape particularised
dashed underfoot hoping for
the salmon-coloured ceramic
floor and
when denied entry spluttered like
a dervish on dinosaur feet
mohawk comb a flabby
mess
of raw meat (bird-sign of dehydration)
lapped the swamp under potted
plants, accepted no freshwater
almsgivings
the hangman was silent with his deed
lest dogs would smell the knell
and, impassioned, unearth the
entombed
but somehow, when the chirruping
in the steel cage ceased, I convinced
myself she had simply wandered off
into the wandoo forest