Daniel’s forest lizard.
| Photo Credit: Tansy Troy
Bright green
whip of colour
I, Daniel’s Forest Lizard
do not deserve to be ousted
or outcast.
Leatherback sea turtle.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
On my leather back shell
the universe once rested.
Now, I as dive deep, think:
In this moment, do you want to
sink,
drown
or swim?
Nicobar cat snake.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
There’s no sting in my tail,
no wrath in my venom:
the only poison is the
catastrophic plan to destroy
my Cat Snake home.
Omura’s whale.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
Shipping
impacts my
sensitive sonar
I, King Omura,
whale of turquoise soma.
A Triptych for The Nicobar Megapode
Nicobar megapode.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
Big foot
with bigger heart
Shyly I scratch sand-mud-grass nest,
laying vast prehistoric eggs-chicks
who fly up
without needing
my tutelage
full-feathered, utterly evolved-
wise young birds:
I am left in the peace I deeply cherish.
I, ancient architect of crone earth,
who could build us all a future,
fully sustained.
Two Birds Endemic to Great Nicobar: The Nicobar Serpent Eagle and Nicobar Scops Owl
Great Nicobar serpent eagle.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
Nicobar scops owl.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
Tiniest accipiter,
my reclusive mindset deserves
respect.
*
Shining out of the darkened forest,
like a golden-eyed jewel.
Snap snap!
I, crocodylus, eat all madness, take in all Patai Takaru,
never letting go.
This ancestral homeland of the Shompen
my prehistoric armour defends.
For though you humans may enjoy the gift of candid speech,
yet I must teach you the power of Spell.
Slap slap!
tail on mudslime
supple-spined, I journey on
to other worlds.
Nicobar Treeshrew
Nicobar treeshrew.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
I am a Treeshrew
who must speak to you-
must discuss and long debate
the treachery of this isle.
My highly elongated brow
and shrewd distain for camera traps,
does not preclude my all-night networking
with racket-tailed drongos.
I invite you to our wild AGM.
Venue: clouds of leaf, of bark.
Our pressing agenda: your sweet survival.
Attend.
Dates TBC.
Pseudorca Crassidens: a plea to be true to the False Killer Whale
False killer whale.
| Photo Credit:
Tansy Troy
I am
not false,
just an orca-like dolphin whale
on the Red List: my once sacred presence
now deemed
History.
Unless
you commit to my
mammalian offspring,
unless you forge fast family bonds
then perhaps none of us will never know
the truth of the word tribe.
Tansy Troy is an India-based educationalist, poet, performer, playwright, and maker of bird and animal masks.
