"Possum" [by Mitch Sisskind]

Possum

At night occasionally a possum
Passes by peering in the window.
It represents my sexuality. Prehistoric,
Very slow moving, and the children
Would be repulsed by it were
They awake which they are not.

Over time I begin to wait for it wondering
If it's attracted by the TV room light
Or perhaps by the TV itself --
Who knows? No way to tell
what a possum is thinking or,
I should say, that gift is not given to me.

I watch "Survivor." But the skittish
Marsupial now owns my waking thoughts
And later, brazenly, my dreams:
I climb a tall tree with it, we read
Comic books together: Donald Duck,
Scrooge McDuck, Daffy Duck, all the rest.

-- Mitch Sisskind