butterflies in iraq

there are no butterflies in iraq he said as we were watching the one day international on a green pitch sponsored by taubman’s easycoat anti-bacterial wall paint. and the dugongs have disap­peared from the reef, he continued, because they could not live with the white bleached coral colours in vogue these days, and sea grass is so sixties. meanwhile abbots, bishops and their laity are denying that climate change and fertilizer and runoff have anything to do with perceptions that butterflies don’t exist on the fertile plains of the euphrates river and that poets don’t have any responsibility for saving species at risk of extinction. we watch the paint dry during the ad break worried about australia’s position in this game, but are reassured that the government has come up with a plan involving the cricketers, the painters and the butterflies to produce a colour card that will be accessible in any bunnings from cairns to wagga with all the colours of the reef ready for walls in lounge rooms, bedrooms, and with the addition of an anti-fungal additive, in wet areas such as the kitchen, the bathroom and the great barrier reef.

first published in ‘out of place’ – prose poems and microfiction. Spineless Wonders Press, edited by kirsten tranter & linda godfey, July 2015

translated into arabic by haider catan and kadhem khanjar. https://al-akhbar.com/Kalimat/267831

photo – object found on East Corrimal Beach, 23 December 2023