Reference to:
The Cockatoos
A short story by Patrick White
1974
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The Cockatoos, the short story
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In this short story, humans behaviour is worse than the behaviour of the shrieking, preening wild cockatoos in the gardens.
The rest of the song is another Smith marvel.
How many songs of any era could include the following lines without a trace of pretentiousness?
‘And turning on his heel
He left a trace of bubbles
Bleeding in his stead’
From
The Cockatoos
P260
“Once as he lay looking out through his window... he could count eleven cockatoos. All docile for the moment, kindness and wisdom in the currant-eyes. Or if the crests rose. It was like ladies delicately opening fans.”
“...he was the boy outside looking through this great window to where the company was seated, in knots on guilded chairs.. all of them docile while, their harsher elders ablaze with a white fire of diamonds, as they picked at the words they chose to offer in conversation. When a certain elderly lady shrieked, for some secret perhaps...And all the ladies and meek gurus where joining in the general screech. Whirling as they changed positions “
P262
“A cockatoo was perched on one of her chimneys. A wing outstretched straight and stiff as he picked beneath the coverts. A second bird, feathers ruffled as he sat clutching a terracotta fireman’s helmet. Screeched at the intruder. Or was it a former live?”
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Like Cockatoos, the song
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She walked out of her house
And looked around
At all the gardens that looked
Back at her house
(Like all the faces
That quiz when you smile)
And he was standing
At the corner
Where the road turned dark
A part of shiny wet
Like blood the rain fell
Black down on the street
And kissed his feet she fell
Her head an inch away from heaven
And her face pressed tight
And all around the night sang out
Like cockatoos
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"There are a thousand things" he said
"I'll never say those things to you again"
And turning on his heel
He left a trace of bubbles
Bleeding in his stead
And in her head
A picture of a boy who left her
Lonely in the rain
(And all around the night sang out like cockatoos)
Songwriters: Boris Williams / Laurence Andrew Tolhurst / Porl Thompson / Robert James Smith / Simon Gallup
Like Cockatoos lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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