(written in the style of a Sestina)

It no longer exists, the thylacine,
though dog-like creature calls,
stripes flick through bush.
Tracking wallaby by scent,
tail extended behind,
the animal is rarely seen.

Overlooking lightly-wooded scene,
rounded ears pricked, is it a thylacine?
Struck by its kangaroo behind,
many rush to phones, make calls.
Yet few rangers are sent
to check sightings in the bush.

Walkers hike in lonely bush,
dangers not often seen.
But is smell of musk scent
a sign of the thylacine?
Researchers follow up calls,
hoping to sight a striped behind

If they come up behind
a strange wolf in the bush
giving coughing barks or yipping calls,
is it an illusion they’ve seen,
because extinct is the thylacine?
Still they cannot let go of the scent.

Tasmanian trappers noted musk scent
when they followed behind
extended heel tracks of a thylacine.
Where’s proof it exists in the bush?
Do hundreds mistake what they’ve seen?
When others laugh, few make calls.

ARFRA* records all calls,
hurries to chase up a scent,
wants hard proof of what’s been seen.
One day they hope to sneak up behind
the strange creature frequenting the bush
to identify without doubt the thylacine.

In time, with calls, a brown striped behind,
peculiar scent in the bush,
proof will be seen of the extinct thylacine.

Image from Digital Classroom.
Note: *Australian Rare Fauna Research Association, website
https://www.facebook.com/AUSRFRA/.
A sestina consists of six stanzas, of six lines each, and a
concluding tercet. The end word of each line of the first stanza is
repeated in succeeding stanzas and tercet in a strict order.