Orange-bellied parrot

Yet here I am

I call across the dark green and blue changing mass for the hundredth time

No response for the hundredth time

No rustle of the eucalyptus, no sweet wind, no churning of the waves, nothing

The others are all gone, they left me here

Yet here I am

My baby was soaring above the scrub and wetlands

The next in the mouth of the monsters, dead

Yet here I am

My love became unwell, her feathers falling, her beak and soul breaking

She became worse, she did not wake, dead

Yet here I am

My home was there in all its beauty yesterday

But today I found it all black, a mere skeleton of the past

Yet here I am

But I won’t be here forever, I might be gone tomorrow

My kind will be gone, unless……