by Anthony Lawrence
Spectral
When my interest in birds had moved
from burden to obsession
I sought comfort in the supernatural –
the way, for example
white netting flows and settles over
fruit trees at dusk, or how a spill of light
from the zinc factory goes
from lilac to deep tissue bruising
on the wall. Tonight, as I raised
the netting to free a silvereye
whose wings were caught in the mesh
a blue-faced honeyeater
arrived in a flurry of song
to harvest a berry cluster
from a palm.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anthony Lawrence has published sixteen books of poetry and a novel. His most recent collection, Headwaters (Pitt Street Poetry) won the 2017 Prime Minister’s Literary Award. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Green Mountains Review, River City, and many journals in Europe and Australia. He teaches Creative Writing at Griffith University and lives on Moreton Bay, Queensland.