States of Poetry - Poems

'Demurely' by Chris Wallace-Crabbe

by Chris Wallace-Crabbe •

States of Poetry Victoria - Series Two

States of Poetry - Poems

'Demurely' by Chris Wallace-Crabbe

by Chris Wallace-Crabbe •

States of Poetry Victoria - Series Two

Brunette or shocking white, these wallabies
have their own special nook nearby,
under that blackwood.
Why just there,
I ask myself: no particular foliage
has given a verbal meaning to the spot.

Something about bone-dry shadow under those boughs
appears to murmur clan or family. Yes,
I know that sounds kind of patronizing,
but when these animals go through their routines
we can see a social order clear as day.

First, and utterly visible, there’s
the milkwhite mother with joey in pouch,
moth-brown in hue, as are all
the rest of this little clan, one of them plainly
a mum too, with her teenager.

Some littoral nights, three tidy wallabies
sleep beside Blanche under the darksome tree,
loitering there – if we don’t jerk into view. Then
suddenness sends them bounding off downhill,
except for the white one.
Yes, she’s at home.

You could say she’s got the game by the balls,
a calming mother, white as vanilla snow.

Chris Wallace-Crabbe

Chris Wallace-Crabbe

Chris Wallace-Crabbe AM is the author of more than twenty collections of poetry. His most recent books of verse include The Universe Looks Down (2005), and Telling a Hawk from a Handsaw (2008). He is Professor Emeritus in Culture and Communication at Melbourne University. Also a public speaker and commentator on the visual arts, he specialises in ‘artists’ books’. Read It Again, a volume of critical essays, was published in 2005. Among other awards he has won the Dublin Prize for Arts and Sciences and the Christopher Brennan Award for Literature. His latest book is Rondo (2018).