Poem: Koalas in the Heat
In todayâs Poetâs Corner, Pat Lee contributes a poem from her new book âNudge the Morningâ, launched this month.
Koalas in the Heat
Phascolarctos cinereus
They came during the worst weeks: the air was dry, crucible dry, the sun rose and set without birdsong, houses throbbed under a clear fierce sky. They came along the creek bed. They came to our garden gate. They were on the ground, each hugging a tree trunk. Over millions of years theyâd evolved to survive Australian summers. Now they awkwardly drank the water we offered, clumsily clutched branches weâd gathered and looking at us with little button eyes, chewed eucalypt leaves with anxious deliberation. The male left. The female stayed for many days. Each time she saw us coming, with urgent then calmer anticipation she held out her large clawed paws. I cried.
You might like
Following retirement from teaching in 2011, Pat Lee turned to her poems and other âdrafts of a lifetimeâ that she had kept in an old munitions box. With that work, she joined Friendly Street Poets in 2012, and was first published in its annual Reader the next year. Her poems have subsequently appeared in further Friendly Street Readers, and in other publications both here and in New Zealand. With Parkinsonâs disease, Lee was a 2014 Recipient of an Arts SA Richard Llewellyn Arts & Disability Emerging Artist Grant. Todayâs poem is from her first published collection, âNudge the Morningâ, which was launched this month and can be found here.
âIn todayâs consumer-driven, fast-paced worldâ, says Lee, âmany in society donât connect with or even notice, the natural world around them anymore. I would like my poetry to encourage people otherwise.â
Readersâ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
Free to share
This article may be shared online or in print under a Creative Commons licence