Vik's Gallery:   Crimson Rosella (1/9)

PSITTACIFORMES: Psittacidae

Platycercus elegans  

The Crimson Parrot

IN the quiet noonday heat
Creeping high aloft
Nimbly, on prehensile feet,
Calling very soft;
Else, among the seeding grass,
Feeding by a tree
Where the soft cloud shadows pass
Not more silently.

Now, with shrill and sudden din,
Swift, as danger comes,
Flashing like a javelin
Past the sunlit gums;
Rocketing thro' inlaced limbs,
A living, darting flame;
While, above, the brown hawk skims
Avid for his game.

Forest dweller, crimson clad,
Bright bird of the sun;
When the winter days grow sad
And the seeds are done,
Where the lonely farm-house stands
Cautiously come I
And about your harvest lands
Pause a while to spy.

Prove you kindly in the end.
Haply I shall stay;
And you have me for a friend
Thro' the winter day.
Toddling round the garden bed,
Swaggering thro' the grass,
Lifting up a crimson head
To watch you as you pass.

The Crimson Parrot
by C J Dennis (1876-1938)
The Singing Garden (1935) p.125.