Wednesday 23 November 2016

THE PLAINT OF PHASCOLARCTOS CINEREUS




Stoned on oily eucalypt leaves, high in the cleft of a gum-tree bough,
Snoozy phascolartctos cinereus, indifferent to the world below;
For aeons we let that world go by, but our creeping ghetto isolation,
Without a blow, without a sigh, is wiping out our population.

While we koalas are protected our habitat is not,
When illegal logging fells our home, precious leaves are left to rot.
Starving we are forced to roam, but in the bush our fate is grim
Down on the ground and helpless when daylight’s getting dim
We’re completely at the mercy of attacking dogs and cars that speed.
They smash our bones, kill our young, leave us lying there to bleed.

While red-neck councillors and strutting pollies display us for the gaze
Of VIPs, foreign tourists get their jollies nursing us in sanctuaries
Ignoring the cause of our fearful plight, the death of our habitat.
Please, human beings, take up the fight before Phascolarctos cinereus
Forever will depart.

            - Dorothy Hillis


Photo: Stan Mussared