Possum

Possum
He was little more than a baby
The day caught him before he had found a hiding place
I saw him on the sidewalk in front of the building as I went into work
Turning this way and that way, encountering footsteps and car engines
Until he climbed a tree in the shade next to our porch
Like him, the tree was young
He sat in thin branches and hugged the narrow trunk
And I, thinking nothing of him, walked by with just a glance
Cute little possum in a tree, so cute, but I had stuff to do
Hours later I headed to lunch, expecting him to have vacated his little perch as the day had worn on,
He was still there
I wanted to tell him to go on, no one wanted to hurt him
But he wouldn’t have understood
So I went to lunch and got my hamburger
I thought of bringing him something but management would have frowned upon that
It’s not in the employee handbook but that would be revised to include the following statement:
Employees are to refrain from feeding wild possums on company property during the workday.
I looked for him when I returned and he was still in the tree
He had been there for six hours
Silent, fearful, vigilant
I stood on the porch staring at him
It’s not everyday you find yourself making eye contact with a wild possum
I don’t know why I couldn’t stop staring
He didn’t like it
He scrunched up his body and curled his bald tail tight
And put his front paws over his eyes
To make me disappear
As I left work that day, I found the tree empty
He had finally worked up the courage to do what he had needed to do—jump out of the tree and find a more suitable place
Today, I still think about him even though years have gone by and many things have happened
My father has died
My mother has grown sick
I am getting old
Prices are getting higher
Pay is getting lower
The world is getting scarier
In all of this I have sought out the advice of religions
Of spiritualists
Of therapists
Of friends
But none of them have given me a better coping strategy than the little possum in the tree so many years ago
So when all around me is fear and anxiety and hostility and anger and hatred and even downright evil and hell is on the loose
I take a break from it all
I put my front paws over my eyes and I make everything disappear
I erase everything from sight and from mind
Whether things vanish for one moment or for twenty is entirely up to me
I control it
And the craziest thing happens
I grow calm, I think straight, I strategize
I get the courage to get myself into a more suitable place
It works
try it
Try It