Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No 81 This Lunar Night

THIS LUNAR NIGHT

This poem set in the suburbs of Sydney reflects on the natural creatures that are around us even in the cities. They are often hidden away and especially at night when we are indoors or asleep another world awakens.

                For those not familiar with them Frogmouths are a form of nocturnal bird related to night-jars. The Tawny Frogmouth is sometimes mistaken for an owl due to its large size and colouring. During the day they are easily overlooked for when asleep they look a lot like a bit of dead tree branch.

Bandicoots are small, omnivorous marsupials. They have a pointy snout, humped back, thin tail and large hind feet. Their great sense of smell helps them find insects and worms even beneath the soil.

THIS LUNAR NIGHT

This lunar night

the houses of the street are quiet.

Familiar shapes are cast in white.

Cats prowl their gardened territories.

The tawny frogmouth and the owl

keep watch on silence; possums climb

within the clustered silver of thin leaves.

A flying fox flits over stars;

a far dog barks. A bandicoot

soft-scrabbles at the ghostly earth.

And pale moths mass on the window pane...

For half this world’s inhabitants

awake to light

this lunar night.