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Thylazine: The Australian Journal of Arts, Ethics & Literature                                                                                                                                #12/thyla12k-ka AUSTRALIAN POETS SERIES 12 The Poetry of Kaye Aldenhoven Selected by Coral Hull [Above] Photo of Kaye Aldenhoven courtesy of the NT Writers Centre, 2001. I Black Cockatoos - Mudjinberri, Kakadu I Bird Watching: Bring up a child in the way I Cleaning the Country - April in Kakadu I Tin Camp Creek - Arnhemland I Pandanus Fruit I Genetically modified I Black Cockatoos - Mudjinberri, Kakadu At sunset black cockatoos fire in their tails dine by the roadside on grass seeds winnowed by the winds of tourist Toyotas. Published in In My Husband's Country (Environmental Media, 2001). Bird Watching: Bring up a child in the way The orange footed jungle fowls step nervously ahead of us, keeping just out of sight. We follow with our ears their scuffling footsteps through the thick dry leaves, under the shrubs. Sssh. Bush chooks, Louis. The chooks hesitate, I catch sight of them, and I lean down to look along Louis' line of sight. Louis leans down too, hands on his knees like me, lips pursed to sssh, watching them watching him, their anxious heads moving, his head still. His blue eyes outstare the bush chooks' dark ones. Chook, chook, he says. We stroll further. Up in the rainforest he's ahead of me on the path. A quick rustle of leaf fall. Ooh. Ssssh, chook, chook! Cleaning the Country - April in Kakadu The crackling is the first warning. The fire flares up a palm tree, devours the petticoat of dead leaves. The wind huffs flames through the high speargrass. Dogs bark along the back fences; a frantic taa-taa lizard dashes in and out of the shade of the house. A pall of blue smoke hangs in the trees, and in the afternoon dyes the sun to henna red. Next morning - no mosquitoes. Forced into the green refuge of my garden come red-backed wrens, finches, honey-eaters. A partridge pigeon struts and frets, attempting to prove to his prudent brood that the dish of water hidden among ferns is safe to drink. The cool Dry season wind shifts the wind chimes sending clear bell sounds out over the fire-cleared land. On the tongue the metallic smell of yesterday's smoke. In the burnt area an invisible wind spirit raises puffs of dust as she sweeps ashes of grass. Through the blackened trunks of the eucalypts a kite glides, searching for small singed bodies. Waste not want not, a gleaners' song. Published in In My Husband's Country (Environmental Media, 2001). Tin Camp Creek - Arnhemland In my dreams flower feeding bats squabble above my swag. Under the Maranthes at sunrise my blanket is scattered with creamy blossoms . . . supper's leftovers. Published in In My Husband's Country (Environmental Media, 2001). Pandanus Fruit for Elisabeth Mansutti at Ubirr On the edge of the floodplains at dusk beneath recursively barbed leaves shards of vermilion enamel drop onto burnt black earth. Now delicately dismembered the knobby sphere displays like jewels on a jeweller's cloth smooth inner membranes of vivid glass. Stored in a basket beside my bed glossy cinnabar fruits exude a dangerous perfume. The floury smell of semen penetrates my room. Published in In My Husband's Country (Environmental Media, 2001). Genetically modified How long should a milkmaid squat with cheek laid to a feckless flank? Hold the bucket between your knees so she can't kick it over! Either your muscular fingers and the heifer attain a measure of harmony or your closeness is short lived. The girls aren't often skittish. It's been bred out of them - careful selection for female beauty that eyes off a wide pelvis and a shapely udder. Rebel heifers don't live long. Generations of farmers hungry for roast beef have honed their blades to select out rebelliousness. About the Poet Kaye Aldenhoven Kaye Aldenhoven has lived and worked in the Northern Territory for many years. PressPress published Skin, a chap book in 2004. This includes poems that focus on her family's experiences in Wailpiri country at Yuendumu. In 2001, she self-published a collection of poetry inspired by Kakadu and western Arnhem Land, titled, In My Husband’s Country. Kaye has been writing for many years and her poetry has been published in various anthologies and journals including, Bugs and Bliss, Northern Perspective and Landmark: Poetry from the Northern Territory. In 1993, she won the NT Literary Awards Red Earth Poetry Award. Kaye has read her poems on ABC radio, and in a variety of live forums: Darwin, Shoalhaven Poetry Festival, Wordstorm - NT Writers’ Festival. She enjoyed being a guest at the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, 2006.    [Above] Photo of Kaye Aldenhoven courtesy of the NT Writers Centre, 2001. I Next I Back I Exit I Thylazine No.12 (June, 2007)