The lone corella

 

It was surprising

To see a lone corella

Wandering on the grasslands;

Gregarious that they are,

This one had decided to stray away

Wondering of the mysteries of the world

By its lonely self

 

I am sure I saw a flock

Much farther away

The bigger soul of a flock on one hand

Dissolution of the self, on the other

Survival in the wild

Does not need brooding philosophers

And yet, some go astray

 

But was it wrong, I asked

To sit on the edge of two worlds –

One, full of company,

A price of cacophony

The other dangling farther away

Like a comet’s distant icy tail

Complying with the rules of gravity

 

There, on that precipice, perhaps

You are allowed –

To open your mask

To breathe in who you always were

To wallow in the melancholy

Of your eternal lonely self

And embrace emptiness

 

It is only when

That last wisp of your existence

Is set to disappear,

That you recollect the curtains

Of your thespian world

The corella goes back to its flock

And no one notices the ebb in the grass…

 

21^st August, 2025

 

Inspired by a lonely corella I spotted on the Farm

Cover Image : Kelly Ryner