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Poem: The Torrens Lake Gangs

This poem about pecking order comes from Gareth Roi Jones, a member of the Adelaide writers’ group “dandylion collective” who is currently co-editing the latest Friendly Street Poets Annual Anthology.

The Torrens Lake Gangs

as the deep-fried air
slowly starts to cool
& the fan forced
wind disperses
the streets click
into stillness
the creek settles
into broken mirrors

ducks & divers
waddle the banks
in their dozens
alongside one
lone goose
once domesticated
renegade now
pecking
at worms, bugs
the soft ground
themselves, each other
literally anything
it seems

until raucous gangs
descend
most boisterous
the rosellas & parrots
tough guys always talking
muscling their way in
to the treetops
hang upside-down
happily chattering

until white cockies crash
with their belligerent
swagger & croaking cries
push the parrots out
start to strip the leaves
from eucalypts, poplars
& beech alike

only the long
necked black swans
seem unperturbed
by the rabble
as they glide past
the noise
then slide upwards
seeking ownership too
of the hotplate sky

Gareth Roi Jones has had his collection “Gunyah Healing” appear in the 2012 Friendly Street three-author New Poets number 17.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems up to 30 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.

 

 

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