The kookaburra begets the sacred kingfisher

who begets the rainbow bee-eater

who begets the firetailed finch

who begets the forty-spotted pardalote

who begets the damsel fly

who begets the jewelled beetle

who begets a pentangle of reflected light

that falls on a colony of dust mites

who beget particles of skin

blown from a hand in a moment of wonder

at the hard beauty of mathematics

or more precisely the language used to define it

as when a bubble tree mutates into something

indivisible like the tail-end

of the mating call of a powerful owl

driven to the margins of fields

night-vision can take in

until the dead and the soon-to-be-taken

have been filed away inside

your windy demographic

until you have what you think you need

which is anything you desire and more

provided your assessments

are based on the knowledge that living

creatures have no correct lineage

when it comes to this

making of phrase and fable this

learning how to arrive and be prayerful and leave