Marsupial babe
cramped tightly in pouch,
leaps out to stretch his legs.
Wobbly, directionless,
returns to mama’s world
snuggles deep within her folds.

Jostled and pushed about by son
mama lies her frame upon the ground
belly flat on dirt, ready for a rest.
Joey’s head suddenly appears
as if to loll about before their nap,
fresh air, elixir to sweet dreams.

        

Shared with dVerse, a virtual pub for poets. Bar opens at 3 PM Boston time.
Photos and video below are from our recent trip to the Australian Wild Life Sanctuary outside of Sydney. These are wallabies and they roam free on the grounds. In the early morning, we saw this mama and her Joey’s tail and feet were sticking out of her pouch. We decided to go back to see her in the afternoon, right before we left. I was feeding her the special food you can buy there – it’s in an ice cream cup. After the food was gone, we just stood there and watched her for the longest time. Everyone else had gone on to other parts of the park. All of a sudden, her joey jumped right out of her pouch!!!  Apologies for the blurred photos — we were so shocked. It was amazing to see this gangly little creature hop about — we couldn’t figure out how all that could fit in her pouch and suddenly, the joey jumped back in!  We watched a bit more and mama decided to stretch out for a nap….Joey was no where to be seen…just a lump and then, out came his head! Earlier in the day we’d had our photos taken with a koala….but this was truly the “icing on the cake” to an amazing trip!!!