ARCOHAB Inc.
Association for Respectful Co-Habitation
Promoting and Practising Kindness and Respect for All Animals and the Natural Environment
Kangaroos - The 100 Days Project: Day 88

Kangaroo at the Depot house. Photo: David Brooks 2006
Meetings
by R.F. Brissenden
After the angry voices
The misunderstandings
The loud and dubious promises
I went home sick,
Excited, shaking.
Later,
In the dusk outside our house,
I stood still.
A small kangaroo
Came out of the forest,
Quietly out between the dim soaring columns
Of spotted gum,
And with delicate teeth
Took bread from my fingers.

R.F. (‘Bob’) Brissenden (1928-91), the author of six collections of poetry, was also a novelist and renowned scholar of eighteenth century literature. A conservationist as well as writer and teacher (the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University), he is one of the pre-eminent poets of the Australian coastline and rainforests. He built a retreat at Depot Beach, New South Wales, a coastal village inhabited by wallabies and Eastern Grey kangaroos.