Apocalyptic Bird Nests

B.R. Dionysius

Ukrainian swallows are reverse engineering death,

pulling the fine golden hair of fibre optic cable out

of the earth’s white scalp. Winters are harsh, covering

the blasted tree line’s broken fingers with soft gloves,

hiding their charred bones. Thin as pine needles the

wires are reshaped by an instinct older than warfare—

shallow bowls like tiny radar dishes target branches

to detect new life. The nests, stronger than before

have become bionic, immortal. Thermal insulation

protects chicks from human coldness, silver threads

cover the ground like morning frost as the robotic

strands wait to be recycled. Their first-person view

ends in a tree’s fork, as a nest Zeus’s eagles might

have fashioned out of the diadems of fallen titans.

B. R. DIONYSIUS was founding Director of the Queensland Poetry Festival. He has published nine collections of poetry. His latest collection, Critical State, was published in 2022. His next collection, Not for Heroics (Liquid Amber Press), is being released in November 2026. Extinction Sonnets (Walleah Press) and The Eromanga Sea (Calanthe Press), are forthcoming in 2027.