/ end notes /

                                                ii. birds

lyrebird calls out
chainsaw         flock whistle         gang-gang cockatoo

pianissimo   signor l.b.                pianissimo      and I’ll
believe you’re the brush-tipped tongue
                        of a honeyeater

                                <

Song for Two Voiceboxes        dream
                        in which I sew the pitch
                             (carillon à musique)
            of K’s shinier
voice in my throat         Song of Gutted Fish
                                   and Glacier Lily

comb brushed over metal teeth
                        barbs snagging
on a dusty spool of afternoon            scratched
with vintage-French               records

                        Un camion rouge!
                        Le ballon vert!

                                <

in which I buy a parrot
                        perroquet vert
                perroquet rouge
and teach him all the lonely words      I don’t want

                overheard       here birdie birdie
                        let go loose and high         speck

of green balloon with lonely, wild
messages inside