Lyrebird Lament (Extract) by Georgia Carys Williams

One Morning, it was made clear.  It was closer.  It was very close indeed.  I have since been told that the horrible weapon the big creature was holding in his arms to sever trees, was a chainsaw.  It was ready to cut down my tree, the one I was happily perched in when I heard chhhhh not yet upon the bark.  I jumped down as quickly as I could and raced across the forest floor again, but in seemed there were trees being amputated before my eyes.  I wondered about my friends perched in the branches and I hope they had heard.  I tried to shriek in my usual, piercing fashion to warn them, but nothing was emerging from my beak.  I tried to imitate what I had been practicing in recent weeks; tried to make the same chhhhh

that was dominating our homes, but nothing was sounding but a raspy crackle and my own breath was louder than it.  I believe I had lost my voice.

I can't be sure where I was discovered exactly, but I remember waking up with at least three humans standing around me.

'We'll keep one of them. Adelaide Zoo said they wouldn't mind one for show', said one human.  That was the first mention of another show I had heard in a long time, so at that moment I felt excited.

'We'll have to get him better, first mate,' another voice said,  the sound too complex for me to compliment imitating it for a long  time.  I was so ill that I must have collapsed somewhere safe and damp beneath the trees and I was lucky to survive. "E's a skinny thing.  Shouldn't be that small"...................

Testimonials referring to the book:
Cheval – The Terry Hetherington Award Anthology 2012

Quotes from the Gwales (Welsh Books Council) review by Caroline Clark:

‘The strongest pieces are the prose, short stories and memoires and the vividly imagined ‘Lyrebird Lament’ by Georgia Williams.’

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