A couple of years ago they released 
some quenda southern brown bandicoots
at Galbamaanup Lake Claremont.

I see them from time to time.
Sometimes they run into the bushes.
Sometimes they they’ll stay out in the open.

There was one today down in the shade
by the paperbark tree
at the eastern edge of the lake.
He was digging through some of the ground cover
that has choked the lake’s periphery.

And right there, by his side, unfazed
and unmoving, was djiddy djiddy
the willy wagtail.

Every now and then the bird would 
shift behind the quenda
when the brown marsupial 
would dig dirt, first with its nose,
then claws,
and tunnel it back out between his hind legs.

Djiddy djiddy was there to scoop up
any food the quenda startled into flight
either by his inspecting snout
or his subsequent digging.

Sometimes the quends would look over 
and the wagtail would hop aside a little.
But eventually they seemed  to simply
carry on in their slow, little rhythm.

Nature cooperating, or at least not competing.
And I wonder—what might the quenda
get out of it?