Dead Possum
last night
on the road
in front of my house
someone ran over a possum
and now
the body lies out there
in the middle of the road
with blood all around it
this possum isn’t
pretending to be dead
this possum is truly dead
not like the time my dog Sheena
chased after a possum
and
managed to catch it
before it ran up a tree
and
Sheena flung the possum around
holding it in her mouth
then threw it to the ground
as I stood there screaming
and
waving my arms in the air
the possum laid on the ground
and
it didn’t move
so I took the dog inside
because
I didn’t want her
messing with the possum
I thought the possum was dead
but later
when I went outside to check
the possum was gone
but this possum
in the middle of the road
out in front of my house
isn’t going anywhere
and
I don’t really want to
have to keep looking at it
until it gets flattened
and
decayed beyond recognition
so I go out to the garage
and
grab me a shovel
I get the large scoop
the one I use in the winter time
to shovel the snow
and
I walk out to the road
and
lift the possum on to the shovel
which takes a bit of maneuvering
for me to get the weight of the body
on to the shovel far enough
so that it doesn’t fall off
and
I carry the body
over to the ditch
and
I fling the dead possum
into the cornfield
before walking slowly back to the house
wondering
if any of this
will make a good poem
James Babbs has been writing for most of his life but he still manages to learn new things. He has written hundreds of poems and a few short stories and has even had a few of them published. More recently James has been indulging in writing haiku with a certain amount of success. He still thinks about writing a novel someday but that just seems like an awful lot of words.
