For the dVerse “in the light of other days” prompt, a request to share a memory, recent or past. This is a little of both, and the possum shown in the pictures here, that I took last night, may well have been the baby of an earlier season’s “poss”.
Poss has come visiting again.
Caught in the torchlight
she runs up a post
only to discover her way blocked.
Was there no roof here last time she visited?
Or has she forgotten?
Memory is a fickle friend,
hers and mine.
I recall her last visit,
a baby clinging to her back.
And my guilt at shouting at her,
shaking a broom to scare her,
before I saw the infant.
Now I look at her again,
that guilt returning
with the memory of that tiny clinging child.
And I forget the ravaged snow peas,
and stand back and let her pass.
This one might be the baby from the last time. She returned to show you how big she’s grown.
So sweet. Thanks for the share.
I hope so, that would be nice. 🙂
Ahh..this makes me smile.
I’m glad 🙂
Beautiful!
…and plump and healthy from eating my vegetables! 😀
You’re doing your part for nature. Respect 😉
Yes. In the end, the just want food, like any living being. I have an animal-loving friend who took to feeding her marauding possum in the hopes that it would be full before it found the vegie garden. I think it just got fatter. LOL One night she saw it sitting on top of her daughter’s slippery slide. I love that image. A fat little poss taking a slide.
That’s so cute! My neighbour has a baby rescue possum that has been adopted by her (3 legged rescue) dog, and rides around on its back.
Awwww! That is the most superb story ever!
She also has an injured galah that chews the dog’s toenails, and hides whenever eagles are around. 😀 It’s a real menagerie of an orphanage next door.
so cool. I love how animals interact with different species. And so cool that your neighbour is saving so many orphans.
Cute critter, we don’t get them here.
Yes, but you have hedgehogs and badgers and other story-book creatures 🙂
😂 So we do!
loved this poem! Utterly charming visit of poss and quite unique. Brilliant couplet to end but I especially liked
“Memory is a fickle friend,
hers and mine.”
Thank you Laura 🙂
eh some kinda wombat
get back jack and jill
cos it is an aussie hill!
poss is a brush-tail,
an arboreal poser,
unlike the wombat,
that hairy bulldozer.
I can’t tell you how much I like this. Similar has played out more than once in my own life, and each time I grow more tolerant, more understanding for the next time.
I find it easy to be tolerant at night when face to face with the marauders, but not so much in the day when all my peas are gone. 😀
A sweet and gentle story. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Beverly!
Love this! Especially; “Memory is a fickle friend, hers and mine.” 🙂
Thanks Sanaa 🙂 I’m going to use that line as a jumping off point for another poem.
What a gorgeous visitor! I want one…
Possums are quite lovely, although someone introduced them to NZ where they are now a pest species and you can buy possum-skin hats and gloves.
Isn’t it remarkable what a change in attitude the presence of an infant can bring? As long as their perceived innocence prevails we forgo the right to blame and punish. A possum perfect poem.
It does make a huge difference! It completely changed my perception of her in an instant.
Thank you Sean 🙂