KING GEORGE’S PARAKEETS

 

It was unbearably hot

Unbearably humid

Even breathing was exhausting

Overcome with fatigue

I parked my jeep at the roadside

In a shaded spot

I recline my seat

And pulled my hat over my eyes

And tried to grab forty

My shirt was soaked with sweat

And stuck to me and the seat

It was no good I couldn’t sleep

It was the constant noise

But not from the traffic

Rumbling by

It was the birds

Squabbling parakeets

Hundreds of them

Chattering and squawking

I gave up trying to nap

And got back underway

You come to expect this

Next to an Australian highway

But not parked in a lay-by

Next to a reservoir in Staines