Teesta Review: A
Journal of Poetry, Volume 4, Number 1. May 2021. ISSN: 2581-7094
I am reading
--- Catherine Clover
I am reading Deborah
Bird Rose’s Shimmer again. Shimmer, from
the Yolngu word
Bir’yun
which means
brilliance
brightening
Bir’yun
can be seen in the glint
of sunlight catching on moving water or the finishing moments of a painting or
a bird singing during an encounter with ancient rock. Bir’yun is
something in motion, a flux, as well as a moment. She writes that it is a form
of ancestral power for the Yolngu people of the north, the Flying Fox people.
And perhaps perceivable for any one of us if we pay enough
attention. She has learnt that ‘ancestral power moves actively
across the world’
I am reading on the tram
during heavy summer rains. Twelve hours of rain are falling, loud, a counter to
the ferocious blazes of last year. It is morning, a watery green light. When I
look up a man is standing at the tram door exit. Catching my eye, he gestures,
his cupped hands parting to reveal
a praying mantis
an insect as large as
the hands that hold it. The insect is a light brown colour, beige in parts,
long-legged, thin. Turns towards me, looking, eyes wide apart. The tram slows,
stops, the doors open. They step into the downpour