First Lyrebird Your vow is the Lyrebird’s thesaurus of mimicry. Your vow yaffles with the laughter of a Kookaburra. Your vow sings the syllables you share with our children. Your vow lullabies a jungle’s stories, canopies, and understory. My vow catapults a Kingfisher past a Kookaburra. My vow scales a frozen waterfall’s icicled aviary. My vow strips a eucalypt’s paperbark for nests for Rainbow Lorys. My vow ploughs a ridge-walk through a peat-bog’s slog and slurry. Your vow paints Jane Austen’s miniatures on two inches of ivory. Your vow quickens a bare forest with your footsteps in snow. Your vow spills its watershed through the fell’s tarns and freshets and startles snowdrops from the floor of heaven. My vow hushes a fir forest and my footsteps in snow. My vow spies a single star from out the wide night’s numbers. 3