Musing Madagascar

Rainforest rain florist 
grows orchids whose prodigious spurs 
are penetrated and inseminated
by the longest moth tongues
in the world.

Stealthy birds rustle through 
underbrushed leaf litter.
We discover nightjars in their lair,
camouflaged and cryptic in the duff,
their yellow bordered feathers encircle them,
in perfect silent symmetry.

Shrill whistles from above
signal the banking play and ecstatic flight
of the Malagasy cuckoo rollers. 
Dee Dee Dee DEEE

The large black and rust Coucal
slithers through mid jungle canopy’
its diverting sashay
suggests a villager
fleeing her enemy.

The Black Crested Drongo 
Malagasy revered, 
claims its place in local lore.
Its whiney-infant call
leads the enemy away.

 Below on small bony branches,
locusts in rainbow colors
explode the shady darkness
of verdant leaves.