Suburban Wildlife

Memoirs of a lockdown garden, for Michele

I. Besieged Back Yard

Rats and bats and other pests
create chaos in the back garden.
Lemons are grotesque, misshapen
by gall wasp infestation.
Lime and orange trees are naked,
rats have stripped them of bark,
fruit bats have decimated the fruit.
The lawn is perforated with holes
as curl grubs pop up, dark grey
with brown heads, frustrating
the family dog, Ginger.
Possums scramble up old camellia trees
accessing the warm, inviting space
between the two floors ‒ scrabble, scrabble…
pandemonium in the kitchen below
as Ginger barks, growls, barks.

II. Black Raiders of the Silky Oak

In the silent school yard behind
the back fence, no noisy children play.
Tallest of the playground trees
is a silky oak, where the ebony
invaders have built an oversize nest
in the treetop, for a second lockdown year.
No sounds of other birds in these trees,
no carolling magpies, no screeching parrots,
no excited twittering of rainbow lorikeets ‒
all driven away by broody crows.
They infringe on family space,
lifting the lid of the rubbish bin
as they fossick for easy pickings.

III. Pigeon Pair

Pushing pedals in her home gym
she watches two loved-up pigeons
bill and coo on the windowsill,
spotted ringnecks, brown
and white tails, a front row view.
Later outside her study window
their romance warms up.
Have they moved their petting
just for her?
She watches the duo again
easily distracted from plans
for teaching Zoom Mathematics
to locked down weary students on-line.
As the pigeon pair flutter and
feather-flirt on their stage
she feels like an intruder –
pulls down the blind,
returns to maths, reluctantly.

Sue Cook lives in Adelaide. A former senior English teacher, she also edited the South Australian English Teachers Association’s annual poetry anthology. In addition to appearances in numerous poetry magazines and anthologies for her own work, she has published the collections ‘In Focus’, ‘Water Music’ and ‘Parallel Lines’ through Ginninderra Press, in 2016, 2018 and 2022. Her poem ‘Frog Cakes’ was featured in InDaily Poet’s Corner in 2015, from where it was taken up by the maker of that South Australian icon for promotional use, and her Kangaroo Island poems have also been prominent in her contributions to the column over the years.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.