{"id":18594,"date":"2026-03-02T14:43:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=18594"},"modified":"2026-03-02T14:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:43:20","slug":"cuckoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/cuckoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuckoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Cuckoo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I fall to Wales<br \/>\nbetween barred clouds and slate sea,<\/p>\n<p>trailing a long day like a banner.<br \/>\n<em>Coucou<\/em>, I say, <em>I am from Kinshasa<\/em>.\u00a0<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Cwcw<\/em>, they say.<br \/>\nSoft rain rills desert dust from my wings.<\/p>\n<p>I am not a migrant;<br \/>\nthis is my second home.<\/p>\n<p>I fathom the woods for dunnocks.<br \/>\nZulus call me <em>unokukhukhuza<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>My eye is a universe.<br \/>\nI quarter the meadows for pipits.<\/p>\n<p>My eggs hatch their terror like slow bombs.<br \/>\n<em>More! <\/em>they megaphone.<\/p>\n<p><em>More! <\/em>is not enough \u2013<em><br \/>\n<\/em>they might swallow their parents whole.\u00a0<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>They follow white thread stitching black roads to the coast.<br \/>\nTheir hearts\u2019 compasses beat them south:<\/p>\n<p>Africa Africa Africa.<br \/>\nThe sun scags at their backs like a hawk.<\/p>\n<p>Forests applaud their arrival.<br \/>\nWarm rain brooks Wales from their feathers.<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Cwcw<\/em>, they say.<br \/>\n<em>Coucou<\/em>, I say.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Feature Image: <span class=\"mw-mmv-title\">A chick of the common cuckoo in the nest of a <a title=\"Tree pipit\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tree_pipit\">tree pipit<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cuckoo I fall to Wales between barred clouds and slate sea, trailing a long day like a banner. Coucou, I say, I am from Kinshasa.\u00a0\u00a0 Cwcw, they say. Soft rain rills desert dust from my wings. I am not a migrant; this is my second home. I fathom the woods for dunnocks. Zulus call me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1449,2093,2094,2098,4862,4863,4864,4865,7262,7301,7341],"class_list":["post-18594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-cassandra-voices-poetry","tag-cuckoo","tag-cuckoo-and-pippit-poem","tag-cuckoo-wales","tag-jeremy-hughes","tag-jeremy-hughes-cassandra-voices","tag-jeremy-hughes-cuckoo","tag-jeremy-hughes-poet","tag-pipit","tag-poem-about-cuckoo","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}