Poem

The Dogs of Darghan Street

December 2008–January 2009, no. 307

Poem

The Dogs of Darghan Street

December 2008–January 2009, no. 307

There are no lions to whelp in the street any more,
and conversely
the Council by-laws forbid
the keeping of the pigs and chickens, goats and cattle
whose prodigious multiplications
could serve as an adequate metaphor
and there are only so many burgeoning plants
you can squeeze into a one-by-three-metre courtyard
but the possums have come back,

David Brooks

David Brooks, critic, novelist, short-story writer, animal rights activist as well as poet, taught Australian Literature, ran a writing program and co-edited Southerly at the University of Sydney. He has published six collections of poetry, the latest (The Peanut Vendor) included in his new and selected poems The Other Side of Daylight (UQP, 2024). He lives in the Blue Mountains with rescued sheep and advocates for kangaroos. The Sydney Morning Herald called his The Balcony (UQP, 2007) ‘an electrical experience’.