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.