girl lost on victoriAn beach]

I Thought the Gull a Drone

All viewing of the world is composite
Bones of ancient baleen whales, eukaryotes and quartz – all
A matrix forming the cliff

At first I think it is a drone
The pacific gull that soars the updraft
Mechanized systems mimic avian expertise
Robotics, virtual simulations, cybernetics
The animal becomes the machine
I have forgotten to see simply 'bird'
Transmuted, it is a feathered data complexity
Endangered, it once was ‘troo-ga-dil’
Captured in paint by an ornithologist on the First Fleet

And then the shame comes – nothing is pure anymore
Everything is layers of technology
The map is not the dreamed place but the layers of restaurants, cafes, bars
‘Find a chemist near me’
600 million unbiased traveller reviews
Share your location with others

The rain fell hard last night
Cliffs are due for a landslide, I ponder
Becoming part of two matrices -
The first, bones under ochre and clay nuzzled
Beside the jawbone of a plesiosaur, torn aluminium cans, fishing wire
A corroded vintage motherboard, plastic fish

The second is the augmented layer on reality
News feed: Girl missing on Victorian coast.