The Peacocks Meet Before Mick Jagger’s Visit to the Peacock Park

Nathan Curnow

Not a wink for him, not a feather.

He’s coming to steal our moves, to study

our ostentation before the next sell-out tour.

World’s greatest show off!

No rattling train. No shiver, nod or call.

It’s like he wants our iridescent green—

the colour of his favourite eye shadow.

He’s chasing the secret of the sun’s azimuth,

as if we’re giant fans. I said ‘azimuth’, Kyle.

You’ve never heard of it!?

That’s why you’re not getting some.

We are well-lit murals, mosaics that shit,

bright stars puzzling the planet,

trembling a terrible cosmos. Mick

can’t fold it neatly back into his tail.

We expand, contract, expand again.

Earth watches through our eyes, rotating

in a fever of Byzantine blue and bronze.

Mick wants to rock forever but

we turn this ageing stone. He has to pay

full entry. If he gets in for free we riot.

The line ‘Earth watches through our eyes’ is by Judith Wright, featuring in her poem ‘Naming the Stars’, first published in 1963.

NATHAN CURNOW’s latest collection is A Hill to Die On (Liquid Amber Press). His previous books include The Ghost Poetry Project, RADAR and The Apocalypse Awards. Gina Mercer once called him ‘a lesser-known superstar of Australian poetry’, which is just the way he likes it.