In my dreams,
you are the mother curlew
who hugs the earth,
hissing at me
like a death adder. I deserve it
for not accepting your invite
to our school reunion
& missing your funeral.
A plover’s scream rips
me from sleep
& you are the plover too,
bristling at suburbia
barking outside my window
& in a waking dream,
you come back
as the laughless kookaburra
staring me down,
spotlit like a circus act
gone wrong.
On my worst nights,
you are a gull in the mouth
of a shark & my wings
are tangled in molasses
air, powerless to make a sound
above the frenzy so loud
I’ll never drown it out.
