Bellingen's Butcher Bird Curse

A small town legend can be a joke, a warning, or the truest thing people refuse to say out loud. We pour a cup of tea, get cosy, and share a poem reimagines Bellingen through a single unsettling idea: the butcher bird’s song doesn’t just fill the air, it changes what people do with their love. 

We talk about Rachel’s return to Voice Within, her continued workshopping and craft growth, and the spark behind this piece, including the phrase “adulterous clime” and the way a local story can feel like a lived pattern. Then we let the poem carry you from a mythic opening into the pulse of market day where handmade goods, bright weather, and live music blur into temptation. The mood turns as the butcher bird arrives, gossip thickens, the sky shifts, and suspicion starts shaping the town’s behaviour as much as any curse ever could. 

If you love narrated poetry, spoken word storytelling, Australian fiction podcasts, and modern folklore that doubles as relationship truth, this one stays with you. Listen through to the final lines, share it with someone who loves a good myth, and please subscribe and leave a review so more listeners can find Voice Within.

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