An Ode To Three Possums In The Middle Of The Road

Possums were around when dinosaurs roamed our planet.

The opossum lifespan is unusually short for a mammal of its size, usually only two to four years.

They have prints on their paws like finger prints. So if a possum gets into your stuff you can identify that culprit.

Opossums are an asset to anywhere they roam. They eat all types of bugs including cockroaches, crickets and beetles. They eat mice and rats. They are attracted to neighborhoods by available water, food or pet food left out at night. Opossums keep our neighborhoods clean and free of unwanted, harmful garden pests and rodents, which may carry diseases. The opossum is "Nature's Little Sanitation Engineer."

It’s a “cycling day" and I simply must ride.

It’s too pretty a day to remain inside.

The world is refreshed and is all brand new.

What a beautifully glorious day to pursue!

So many plants boldly display their blossoms.

But the roads are alive with a lot of dead possums.

If this possum plays possum for very long,

The smell will become impossibly strong.

O-possum what has rigor mortis taught us?

Did you lose the race with the hare and the tortoise?

There’s no one here to make note of his passing.

Of course the circling vultures are amassing.

Was the cause of the death ruled a suicide?

Or was the possum in the road to “hitch a ride”?

No one is there to draw a chalk line.

There is no respect to erect a little shrine.

There won’t be a formal autopsy performed.

The buzzard’s dinner is merely being warmed.

This possum has gone as many before.

But why was he there? Was he trying to score?

And just down the road is another road-kill.

Was she in the road against her will?

O-possum why are you lying there dead?

Apparently a car has run over her head!

Now another possum carcass is in the same lane.

Was there fowl play or were they all insane.

Was it an accident or a sordid plot?

This is what I wonder as their bodies rot.

Could it all be blamed on a lovers’ triangle?

Were they killed as they tried to disentangle?

Was it homicide as they were embracing?

Or were they just in the road for a bit of racing?

Except for that tell-tale tail, each could be a cat.

That tail protrudes while all else is flat.

One marsupial seems to have a sinister grin.

A speeding car gives the corpse a spin!

Weren’t they warned about possible danger?

Were two led astray by acts of a stranger?

There’s a void about their recent brief history.

Alas, we’ll never solve this nagging mystery.

Perhaps a pair was seeking love nocturnally.

And now their spirits are joined eternally.

No solutions are offered as their bodies corrode.

One rodent bloats- and may soon explode.

Let’s at least place some flowers or Mardi Gras beads?

Let’s dress up the road as the possum bleeds.

It’s with a heavy heart that I pin this “ode”.

For the three dead possums in the middle of the road!

Police say they charged a Pennsylvania man with public drunkenness after he was seen trying to resuscitate a long-dead opossum along a highway.

State police Trooper Jamie Levier says several witnesses saw 55-year-old Donald Wolfe, of Brookville, near the animal Thursday along Route 36 in Oliver Township, about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The trooper says one person saw Wolfe kneeling before the animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a séance.

He says another saw Wolfe attempting to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Southern Cuisine: Baked Possum with Apples and Sweet Potatoes

Now Habee swears she's never eaten her recipe!