Kathleen Dzubiel writes poetry and prose. She has performed her work at numerous venues and on radio. Before the digital era, her work was published in many print journals, including Southerly, Mattoid, Going Down Swinging, Southern Review, the Courier Mail and Island. Recently, her poetry has appeared online in Creatrix.

 

Writing WA is proud to present this work as an initiative of the Emerging Writers Program, funded by the WA state government. "Nullarbor Highway", "tyre tread", and "worm hunting" were first published by Creatrix, WA Poets Inc. Copyright is held by the author.

 

Nullarbor highway

air haze from hot bitumen

hitchhiker wavers

 

yellow beaked falcon

hovering over carpark

adapted hunting

 

barbed wire

singing honeyeater's perch

on a barren plain

 

nesting magpies

interweave twigs

with blue twist ties

 

tyre tread patterns

against the grain

of dugite skin

 

ravens bring their young

ungainly legs, red-skinned beaks

peck at cricket balls

 

worm hunting

magpie gobbles down

elastic bands

 

duel for breakfast

two ravens stretch bacon rind

between their beaks

 

magpie mimicking

the wail of police sirens

urban born and bred