by Linda Neuer
Shy and elusive,
they were shadows at dusk.
Marvelous marsupials
of convergent evolution,
fox-wolves with tiger stripes
roaming the eucalypt forests.
Apex predator vilified, targeted,
hunted to extinction by the 1930s.
What remains are our regrets:
faded photos of families caged,
a silent film of last one pacing,
emblems on the island’s coat of arms.
Now we can do more to remove them
from the murals of missing animals,
their genome will lead to clones.
Then lost won’t last forever.
Balance restored in Tasmania’s reserves,
alive again with thylacines.