Red tail bleeds blood.

Yellow cheeked, burning sun.

Wings glossy black,

gliding

through air.

Powerful bill - dog’s bite.

Smallest of the

black cockatoos.

Tail feathers spreading left, right.

Big threats of loss of habitat.

Shrill squawks louder than

a squeaky train brake.

Crackle, group of 60.

Casuarinas, soaring seed pods.

Cockatoos calling, Indigenous people

dancing, rain coming.

Wings blacker than pitch black sky.