Two Pelicans Poem by J.L. Nash

The bark on the gum tree hangs in strips like a torn dress
Flayed nightwear once of the silken variety
Pink hue of new flesh revealed beneath
spattering of colour freckles the limbs
while 2 pelicans, barely beyond, float upon the mangrove waters.

They’re playing their own games,
Chasing and racing, this way and that way
Unaware of us watching them from under this
Burlesque tree out but also in place

We collect feathers from magpies without their knowing
Add one from an ibis
We are far from the Nile
I speak of making quills and you,
you mirror your pelicans
from the shell encrusted mud flats like eggshells underfoot

there is a smell to gum trees.
Woody, spicy and masculine that appears when
Warming the leaves by rubbing them together in palm
In the time it takes to inhale the aroma
I am she and he is he
Male and female
Like the redgum which pushes high over the banks of that
Murky water with the
Two pelicans a flock of ibis and old bark falling away