(The oozlum bird is a mythical bird in Australian and British folktales. When startled, it takes off and flies in ever-decreasing circles until it flies up its own backside, finally disappearing completely.)

Round and round
and round and round
and round and round they go
in ever-decreasing circles
dancing their danse macabre
their multiplying U-turns
accelerate
become a balletic
Viennese waltz of death
 
More and more of them
achieve escape velocity
fly off at a tangent
and disappear
not necessarily for ever
unfortunately
some of them are recycled
into increasingly unsuitable roles
but they kee-eee-eeeep dancing
kee-eee-eeeep spinning
 
How long before
they finally vanish
up their own fundamental orifices,
like the mythical oozlum bird
or an exhausted tornado
that draws them up
detritus hurtling round the sky
so high
that looking down
they see far below
the disintegrating nation
they have ruined?
 
 Aberdeen-based Australian poet Mandy Macdonald believes that poetry can change the world, but is cultivating an allotment just in case. Her work is widely published in journals and anthologies and her pamphlet The temperature of blue is available from bluesalt.co.uk. 21st-century Poetry is edited by Andy Croft, email [email protected].