Kangaroos - The 100 Days Project: Day 88

          Meetings

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by R.F. Brissenden

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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.

Kangaroo at the Depot house. Photo: David Brooks 2006

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.