A Frozen Challenge

• Sam Lang, Grade 9, Home Schooled - VIC
• Poetry
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

Tall, snowy, tree-strewn. A dense white mountain peak.
Inspiring views, or if you choose, look closer to your feet.
Under boulders, rambling shrubs, creeping with spring blossom
Is the playground, home and habitat of the mountain pygmy possum.
As winter thaws under sleeping claws, at lower altitude
Bogong moths, return aloft, their very favourite food.
If climate breaks and possum wakes before the moths' migration,
Tummies rumbling and critical numbering, they'll suffer from starvation.
Grey, reserved and fuzzy, the endangered, great help require.
With homes so few, not much to chew, our assistance they desire.
As the only marsupial in Australia, who hibernate this way.
Tasks abound, preserve nests on ground. Act now, do not delay.
Degradation and intrusion, along with climate change,
Are some reasons for your thinking to be slightly re-arranged,
So, turn out your lights, walk, run, or ride. Tread lightly and with care.
Together we'll save the pygmy possum from extinction if you dare.