PERCHED IN ISOLATION
LOCATION: SOUTH-EASTERN, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Juvenile South-Eastern Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo
The sunlight’s reign brought cheerful cries, from friends and energies nearby,
But now the unwelcomed rumbles reduce our high.
With deep bellows and mechanical shrills,
The man made beasts are on the hunt to kill.
They make their space and invade at pace.
For the forest born of peace,
Is now part of their wasteful race.
Soul-less blades approach with the absence of elegance,
To teardown towering pinnacles of transcendental residents.
Clearing fruitful land is not what nature had planned.
Due to the sake of these crops, our ecosystem it stops.
The cycle has changed,
This true wilderness is now being rearranged.
The wildfires add heat to this sorrow,
Preventing local flora and fauna from seeing a tomorrow.
With my family reducing to a dwindling count,
My plea to you is paramount.
If I was to fly and leave my hollowed gum roost,
Will it still be here?
Or, be a ghost in a forest that is being reduced?
The search for my beloved stringy bark,
Is now a restricted zone you call a park.
For the outside is bleak,
And what’s there has snatched food destined for my beak.
Everyday that the Australian woodlands shrink,
I feel my homelands lessen to the brink.
From a single egg in warm embrace, I am my mother’s cherished ace.
With time and love I have grown,
And with a watchful guidance even the skies I have flown.
Though there is this detrimental misery,
From my heavenly view there are angels I see.
The ones that reflect compassion and care,
Are helping the forests to grow and repair.
But these gentle guides that are aware,
Could always use another pair.
So change your thoughts about the lands you tread,
And bring back the natural paradises; this earth was designed to spread.
The land should be ripe,
It should cause elation,
Not leave me perched in an unnatural isolation.
Watercolour on Paper
11.8in x 16.5in
Life-size subject