Possum Song

POSSUM SONG You are the same possum I saw eating my garbage like a recluse, your long pointed snout hissing at me through your teeth. When I first saw you I backed away and quickly closed my door, my legs still shaking as if I'd been chased by a bear. For months now I thought you'd be there upturning my garbage cans for some tasty morsel. Oh, yes, I believed I'd see you again every time I opened my door. One night as I turned into my driveway, my car lights focused for an instant on your gray face and mutilated body lying alone in the street. In the city when an animal dies they carry off his remains with the trash. Only another possum could appreciate the grotesque fierceness in your eyes. I couldn't leave you there. That night I carried you up my hill in a shovel and buried you beneath my pomegranate tree. The next day the neighbors spoke of you briefly. A dead possum is usually only valuable to God, but you stay alive in my memory along with the night sounds and barking dogs. Janet Marie Bingham