Day trippers post Mothers Day-bus from Banyo
to toilets in a country town
because there are none at the donkey farm!
Mule/burro/ass/donkey-NOT a horse
Outback days/heavy lifters-happy to serve
Stock protectors-from foxes,wild dogs,dingos
Desert creatures-so they don't need food or water
Sure-footed and willing to learn the ways of ropes and harness
They have caried loads since Jerusalem
5 million feral in outback desert regions
Culls have wiped out the wild in Queensland
yet they linger/hidden in ravines/beneath trees
hard to see from a helicopter-Northern Territory/West Australia
German "donkey lady"rescues them-from knackeries
dumped on her property/abandoned after failed enterprises
She has 29 now -all named and in her will
She has tamed and resc ued over 500
She will not extend her hand to other animals
yet a singular dromedary lingers with her beloved burros
("he thinks he is a mule,too"she explains)
Photographs of World War(Simpsons)donkeys are produced
She explains their many modes of usefulness
As guards and guardians,pack animals and desert travellers
We photograph and puzzle as to why anyone would wish this-
to rescue an animal classified(like the dingo and fox)-as a pest
Then I look again at the aged in this coach
tourists on a day trip to a donkey ranch
Their load in life nearly ended-seen as pests by all their young
They have come to see their reflection
as they file back on/with only a look
at fences and harness and duties to carry
Four legs good-two legs too old
We leave the donkeys on their own
proceed to our stable homes
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