Page 15 - WTP Vol. X #7
P. 15
Opassum
“An Opassum hath an head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignes of a Cat.”
—John Smith, Map of Virginia (1612)
Maybe I’m shy, but otherwise you’ve got it wrong:
I’m stronger than you know. How else have I alone
among so many pocketed relations survived these many million years, this side of the wide waters?
My white face haunts your nights. You’ll see my signature in mud— opposable thumb, plantigrade amble. You won’t miss
what I take: rats and mice, beetles, crickets, cockroaches. I’ll teach you what it means
to come from old roots
and die young, if
you stop telling tales:
my prehensile tail’s no
rope, I’m no monkey hanging from a swaying branch.
I just want to be left alone.
I know when to quit
and when to fight.
Wake me up.
Let me show you my teeth.
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