visiting my brother in Melbourne twenty-five years ago
The sun set
And the golden sand
Faded to silver grey.
The breakers,
Catching the last glint of sunshine,
Sparkled white against the darkening sea
When, from the frothing wave
A single penguin
Leapt to its feet
Amidst the ebbing tide.
Finding itself solitary on the beach,
Turning
It threw itself into the following wave
Which as if in jest
Deposited five more
Upon the shadowed shore.
They too peered round
In anguish at their exposure.
Then chattered with relief
As each successive wave
Increased the nervous crowd.
At last with one accord
they turned and ran
Towards the plaintive cries
Amidst the sand dunes.
Where the hungry young pleaded for food,
Tackling every adult as it came,
until they found their own.
Each dawn their parents’ underwater flight began
Seeking for food some forty miles at sea,
Returning at the apparent safety of the dusk
To the abandoned offspring in their sandy nests
Reunited at last comforted and fed
They settled for sleep.
Silence returned to the dark beach,
Save for the mewling cries of orphans
Whose parents failed to run the gauntlet
Of seals upon the offshore reef.
– Justinian
