“Look mummy! There’s a shape-changer on the roof!
First it was a man, and now it is a cougar!”
“-Don’t be silly, boy, shape-changers don’t climb onto rooves.”
“Yes yes! I saw it! He’s there.”
The sun beat down on the mother and son,
Their little tea party on the deck continued.
Howard finished his work on the roof,
Collected his cat, thanked the mom, and went in his car.
The next day-
“Mum! I saw a giant in the big gum tree!”
“-Did you, sweetie? What did it look like?”
“Big. And it had teeth.”
“-Were they scary teeth?”
“Um, no.”
“-Ok, then why don’t you go and catch it and show me it?”
“Ok. I’ll go.”
Trapping a forest is something that commandos do.
The boy went to work quickly, studiously,
And for the next four years he set up such a network,
Of wires, nails, hooks and planks,
That no one could come close to the big gum tree,
Or the river, or the fernery, or his daddy’s roof,
Again.