Jamison Valley Lyrebirds

Catherine Phil MacCarthy

We lost hope of ever catching a glimpse—

or seeing them dance—with daily news of rain,

landslides across our path, pale eucalypt.

I could have missed the tawny rumps, dark heads

foraging the forest-floor, so good the camouflage.

Here they are now, a pair, come from nowhere,

they probe and flick wet mulch and twigs.

He stamps a mound of scratched earth, vibrates

a tune, fan-tail lifting, then shimmers light

plumage over his crown, and sings, while she

steps round him, in rhythmic motion. We stand

stock still in the storm-shelter, watch them glide

between the trees as if they are quick-stepping

the Paso-doble, their acoustic dalliance.

CATHERINE PHIL MacCARTHY’s (she/her) books include Emblemas (USP, 2024) and Daughters of the House (Dedalus Press, Dublin, 2019). She received the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry 2014, a residency at Varuna, NSW, in 2022 and The Yeats Thoor Ballylee Poetry Prize in 2023. A native of Co. Limerick, she lives in Dublin. www.catherinephilmaccarthy.com