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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Keith Johnson's Australasian Bestiary - the Kaka and the Kuku [Kereru]


FUNNY OLD BIRDS
 

The kuku loves domestic bliss

The kaka likes life’s turns and twists

 

The kuku is at its best at home

The kaka though is prone to roam.

 

While kukus plump for picturesque

The kaka goes for picaresque

 

For the kuku absences are antithetic

Contrast the kaka - he’s peripatetic

 

Like Zorro the kaka wears a red bolero

Not so, the demure and retired kereru

 

The kuku is polite and workaholic

Where kakas are ever prone to frolic

 

At a party, you can guess who’s most shambolic

The kaka always gins without the tonic

 

The kuku rarely doffs its vest

While kakas often dance a wild burlesque

 

The kaka will raise the decibels with yakka

And soon he’ll ask his mates to haka

 

So all in all, the kuku’s just an early player

And it’s the kaka who’s the party-stayer

 

Birds of a different feather they may be.

“Have a drink! Which of them do you think is me?”

 

‘He kuku ki te kainga,

He kaka ki te haere.’

 

[“He is a wood-pigeon (kuku / kereru) when he's at home but a noisy parrot (kaka) when he's out and about.”]

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