Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Ali Jane Smith – There's only speaking


The raven moans.

Moans? The call means something

and it could be

I'm having trouble with the gladwrap on this discarded sandwich”

or

Alas, I thought there might be
a broken burger ring left in the bag”.

Sometimes the ham or jam or vegemite on bread
can be released with the kind of thumping
the raven would happily offer mouse or fish
and sometimes there really is something in the silver inside
of a scrunched packet.

The raven cares nothing for those retchworthy squeeze tubes of yoghurt.
Leaves them for the rain to take them to the sea
and the lacerated gut of some creature
that has no need for dairy foods or plastic.

Twa ravens discover a scattering of jatz.
There is a brief and cautious flurry of beaks

and something's settled. Hey down 
derry down, hey down down. One eats
the other waits, uncomplaining. 



1 comment:


  1. Twa ravens discover a scattering of jatz.

    -- there's a title!

    ReplyDelete