Anna Couani #169 Raby the merino, after Kerri Shying's Billy the goat

Stefan Siedlecky dressed as Macarthur with young Raby the merino 

I remember Raby the merino

named after the farm Raby

where my grandparents were given him

in payment for some favour

Raby’s tiny hooves pattered on the lino

in the kitchen

as we held him to feed him

from a baby’s bottle

his legs slid on the lino

later he lived out in the cold

in the paddock

where they previously tried to grow potatoes

that got stolen

they put up a rickety fence

made of chicken wire

but as a grown merino

he easily walked through it

and out onto the street

where he bailed up people, dogs

and became a public menace

being so huge

with big curly horns

butting people

so they sent him somewhere after that