©Jabiru’s Prayer

Let me begin the year with a fervent prayer – a prayer of intercession.
To arm my fellow beings knowledge, kindness, generosity and compassion,
A prayer that will bring all bird species to an absolute redemption.
Let me begin to pray a Jabiru’s prayer without any reservation.

To protect, conserve and preserve me and my world a yonder,
A prayer that will set me free to where I belong, to marshes far beyond.
Of rivers teaming with fish, crustaceans and occasional frogs be got,
To a world where lakes, billabongs and wetlands beckon- ‘forget me not’.

To stand 4 feet tall like a portrait in canvas, graced by artist palate’s embrace,
Of a threatened species painted ebony and ivory in solitary confinement malaise.
Of a place where man from Mars call Conservation Park and Bird Sanctuary,
To me, I call Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus Long term Mental Infirmary.

They say how good I look behind those fences as they gawk, he cheers,
I say how sad and lonely my solitude is, my eyes brimmed with tears.
They say how lucky I am to get my breakfast in bed, my dinner on a plate,
I say, ‘thank-you’ but what’s the use for no beau to share my fish on a plate.

As I kneel in earnest request for an absolution,
I pray for a Cardinal’s miracle of a sun beam seeking solution.
To lift my prayer to heaven for a conservative decision,
I kneel in prayer, your answer to my Jabiru’s prayer in bird conservation.

AVIAN WRITER DAISY O’NEILL PENANG MALAYSIA
© JABIRU’S PRAYER
(Jabiru is the old name used for Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus)