Old Man Kangaroo

- a Revanche poem -

They drive out where the ground is rough,

through mulga, scrub and spinifex,

past dry creek beds and rocky tors,

to hunt the Old Man Kangaroo.

Alerted by the engine’s throb,

a tremor stirs the grazing mob.

The driver’s craggy face lights up,

his mate beside adjusts his seat,

anticipates the chase to come,

prepares to use his gun.

The Old Man Roo stands up full height,

defiant in the evening light.

The men ignore the fleeing does,

the joeys racing at their side;

and focus on the Patriarch,

a target worth the run.

The roo explodes with mighty bound,

then turns and zig-zags ‘cross the ground.

Through trees and scrub, up creek and rise,

the battle-scarred old truck gives chase;

its engine strains, it spins and slides

then lurches to a halt.

Atop the hill the roo looks down;

again he’s beat the men from town.

© Linda Visman

16^th March 2008

The Revanche poetry form consists of:

8 stanzas of alternating quatrains and couplets.

Stanza 1: a quatrain in iambic tetrameter;

Stanzas 2,4,6,8: Rhyming couplets in iambic tetrameter;

Stanzas 3,5,7: Quatrains, with 3 lines of iambic tetrameter,

but the 4^th line is iambic trimeter.

All quatrains are unrhymed; all couplets are rhymed.

The Revanche is a poem of action.