Morning with pardalotes

the wind has wakened in the night
pouring from the mountains and the dark ocean
and birds tinier than thought
birds of glance or whim
with a three-note cry
flit on the wild air

the grass is silvered with seed
blown and flung with wind –
a rough spirit in sudden possession –
where the wallabies came to feed at dusk,
grey, in the sculptured stillness,
see! the grass, beaten with light

on this island we are closer to the turning sky,
spinning into our own weather,
far from the lull of the tropics –
birds on the wind, almost invisible, gathering
glimpse and syllable, lifted
like pardalotes, jottings, flown –

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Pam Schindler is a Brisbane poet. Her work has appeared in Australian magazines including Meanjin, Hecate, Island, and Australian Poetry Journal. She is the author of one book of poems, A sky you could fall into (Post Pressed, 2010). She was a 2013 Hawthornden fellow.