Poems from Ornithology, the latest collection by Makhanda poet Jeannie Wallace McKeown. Ornithology will be launched at Amazwi on Thursday 11 September at 5.30pm.
Ornithology
The women in my family
return as birds
when they are done being women.
Grandmothers and great-grandmothers:
bokmakierie, wagtails, hoopoes.
My mother didn’t say
which bird she would be,
although species in numbers
held their parliaments
in her garden.
She did set a forked length
of driftwood into the riverbank,
a perch on which to sit and wait,
before the silent launch
of a dusk hunt,
and on the night after her death,
while I watched the sun set,
a spotted eagle owl came,
and watched with me.
Zinkwazi Beach
As clear as a window to Zinkwazi Beach,
your painting hangs on my wall.
A hot day, the sea deeper than cobalt,
the denim sky holding a haze.
Aloes stand near enough to touch,
chilli-red flowers with succulent leaves.
Sand the rich colour of cream
on the turn, waves frothing white,
and you, the artist,
always just outside of the frame.
Dream Runners
The dogs are dreaming more
since hard lockdown started
and dog walks ended.
Before, they slept silently, deeply,
an occasional twitch of a paw
or an eyelid.
Now they are taking their missed walks
in their sleep;
paws flexing, muscles twitching,
barks issuing from deep
in their dream-tight throats.
Tails wag, ears twitch in greeting
in their dreaming runs;
freedom, long grasses,
hadedas berating from overhead
and a clear dirt road disappearing
towards the sunset.
Are you a poet or creative writer? Share your creative writing or poetry with Grocott’s Mail; send your piece to grocottseditor@ru.ac.za with the subject line ‘Soul 2 Paper’
