Kookaburra

If imitation’s the sincerest form

Did we imitate them, or them us

In the dreaming after all the fuss

Died down, only to start up anew at dawn?

And are all the other birds in on the joke,

If it’s a joke, and do they laugh or cry?

Is it important to ask how and why

Or just give them space and speak to when spoke?

All day’s a work day for food and shelter -

Snake and skink and fledgling and dragonfly

Roadsign and tree bowl, rockledge detour

Where their chorus covers the territory,

Their skim over river cool a moment’s find,

Their song quips, their burbles speak their mind.