Finishing Up.

FINISHING UP

   Nightfall ... and I am still here
   in the school at the prison farm.

   My children will be at the table, filling
   their mouths with food and chatter.

   And the littlest one will be asking
   her mother, "Where is Daddy?"

   I am where my resignation
   has led me. My roguish students

   are in the compound, locked up
   for the night. Except for the sentries

   the guards are gone. I am alone,
   finishing up. Did I miss someone

   when I said goodbye? Does it matter?
   We have been good to one another,

   these bad men and I. I try not
   to think I will never see them again.

   I am alone. I look out the window.
   The forest is in silhouette.

   On the lawn, almost dissolved
   in the dusk, a young kangaroo

   hunches on its haunches to graze.
   It was not there a moment ago and

   in a moment when I open the door
   it will not be there again.