Monday, January 06, 2020

thick knees


Some people call me ‘thick knees’,
But, the middle joints of my long yellow legs
Are not excessively large, in my opinion.
My legs match my unblinking yellow eye
And compliment my camouflage plumage.

Some people call me ‘stone curlew’,
But I’m no sort of curlew at all.
I have no long curved beak
To probe mud for tiny crustaceans,
And I sing no plaintive song,
When I do aviation.
My call is like a hinge squeaking in the wind,
Or two rusty knives scraping together.

Few people ever see me
As I sit low among scrub and stones’
They have to seek me out
With high powered telescopes.
Then through a lens you can look at me
And I’ll look right back at you,
With my yellow unblinking eye.
Call me all the names you want
Even use Latin too,
I’ll just give you a yellow-eyed stare,
Because that’s what  I do.

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