Christmas: for Gilbert's potoroo

First white record 1840

Last record 1879 Rediscovered 1994

The fake Christmas trees, the tinsel and lights,

the reindeers and santas and snow,

that big spending spree, consumption's mad heights;

my soul with nowhere to go.

Immersed in the bush, my spirits renew,

while thoughts of survival sustain;

reflecting our fate's one small potoroo,

extinction its haunting refrain.

Returned from the brink, that species so fraught

death's close as the blink of an eye,

funds needed to breed, a respite so short,

Potorous gilbertii don't die!

Resilient, besieged, just thirty remain,

will humans respond to their plight?

Our future at stake, this priceless campaign,

greed's folly or wisdom, insight?

The glitter and glitz have faded away,

we're fatter and poorer and tired,

the garbage bins bulge, the earth forced to pay,

and three little potoroos died.

(c) 2004 Shirley Hotchkiss, Umina