Dream

Bridie's costumes for Tom Snout and Francis Flute, including Snug's very own Lion costume (far right) for Act V. This sonnet echoes one of Puck's beautiful farewell speeches, "Now the hungry lion roars..." 
 

Now tawny frogmouth glooms its night refrain

And owl its one hoot like a distant train.

The neighbour’s dog stops shouting at its ghost

And ants through cicada shells about are, most.

Possums click roofing to scuttle in gutters,

Hightail boughs outside deadset shutters.

While that rustle of metal and garden shed locks

Might or might not be a visiting fox.

Each interrupts inhabits my dream so slight

Alike as our tiny tiger April might

Snoring light in the doona of the night.

Likewise hunting early outside unbidden

Goes our proto-panther Obsidian

As the world turns slowly again viridian.