The Aussie Rural Night Poem by Francis Duggan

A full moon silently creeping through the starlit sky
A cattle dog barks in the farmyard nearby
In answer to the hunting fox's shrill cry
The domestic one to the wild one feels compelled to reply,
The boobook owl one who hides from the sunlight
Is calling out mopoke in the still of the night
And the scream of the barn owl so shrill like and clear
For any tiny creature so frightening to hear
The soft whistle of the wombat one cannot mistake
He sleeps in his dark home when others are awake
And the aggressive male brush tail possums seldom seen out by day
To their identity their harsh cry is a give away
And the territorial male koala roars in the moonlight
A familiar voice of the Aussie rural night.