BESTIARY
-
John Charles Ryan (Australia)
balga
its slow-growing stalk
ascends to arid heavens
carrying breath prints
fern drops
metallic water
poised like gutter rain backed up
to burst on mind thatch
giant kelp
in Tassie waters
seaweed waves of purple pale
the ocean breathes out
reticence
vased kangaroo paws
emboldened greatly to red
by draughts of dewsap
olfaction
this garden fragrant?
nay, I detect acrid notes
of rubbish and bleach!
lumen
oracular blooms
index the pitch, pull, and pulse
of the desert moon
fractured
honeypot flowers
gathered up the pieces and
salved his sore sutures
bruised
is this a hip bone,
a welt to give, to bemoan
a tomahawk thrown?
first
new faint lemon tufts
under trident banksia
were dandelions
landing
someone has fallen
outside five thresholds to grace
tilting like treetongues
making sense of bestial
forms
calamari tube?
a lighthouse at head of land?
stick caught in a flume?
bestiary
golden snail parade
anthers dizzied in storm light
leaning left—cackle!
****