The trumpet calls

Hazel S Hall

Re-enactment of the Kangaroo Recruiting March 1915

emu plumes
on a second son's
slouch hat …
another of her brood
plucked for the table

his clydesdale's
white feathered fetlocks . . .
a message
slipped beneath the door
after his rejection

an artist
commissioned to paint
the posters . . .
a bugler playing
beside red trenches

*

re-enacting
the kangaroo march
to sydney
flesh and feathers
decorate the wayside

so many singing
in the britten requiem . . .
is it time
to cut the strings
to mother england?

First published in Kokako 25 (NZ), 2016