A doomed kangaroo

Half a cup
Australian
ginger-flavored wine
spicy taste on my tongue
burn in my stomach
at home
during a night alone
after an errand
into Ballarat.

A small buzz in my head
numbs my mind to
the unwitting killing of
a kangaroo, and
my escape from the cause of it's demise.

I want to forget;
the dark night highway,
a "bull" kangaroo
leaping from a stand of
gum trees
lining the main highway
on my side of the road
from Ballarat to Scarsdale.
I saw the bounding creature in my headlights
from side vision.

Too late.

I hit the brakes hard
from about 65 miles per hour.
His thick, strong tail
hit the right end of my front bumper;
I heard a dull thud.
But he kept bounding.

He bounded
into the car driving in the opposite lane
opposite me.

I saw those headlights,
no time for warning.
A sickening smash
of that kangaroo
bounding
into the other car.

I heard the bloody smack
of large animal body meeting metal
as the hapless creature
careened
unaware
into the other vehicle heading to Ballarat.

The bottle of red wine
I purchased to go with tomorrow night's dinner
shattered as it jumped off the front seat
and onto the hard floorboard
at my abrupt stop.

The smell of spilled red wine filled my car.
I heard the sound of someone else's smashed car
and a kangaroo's death.

My purse landed on top of the mess
of wasted wine.
Shards of green glass
lined my floorboard
among rivulets and pools of red.