We’re talking about
when we met
and you say
it was easier
to fall for me thinking
(I’ll remember
this pause)
it was likely I’d be
dead by now.
Talking. Falling.
Thinking. Waiting . . .
Have I
undone
what you’ve tried to do?
You say no.
You say the surprise
of still being
is something
being built—
the machine of our living,
this saltwork of luck,
stylish, safe,
comfortable and
unintended.
Meanwhile, I haven’t
had the opportunity
to tell you, but
our lovely little dog
has just killed
a possum.
Maybe it’s unfair,
a possum entering
the argument here.
But I lay it down
before us:
because an ugly
dying possum
played dead
and didn’t run,
its dubious cunning
was brought to an end
outside our door
by our brutal, beautiful
and very pleased
little dog.
So how do I say
that this is not
about death or sadness
or even whether
you really
first loved me
waiting, thinking
I’d be
dying young?
It’s just that
standing there
a few minutes ago
holding a dead possum
by its repellent
bony tail,
I was struck by how
eerily pleased I was
to be a spectator
to teeth, spit,
agony and claw,
feeling full of purpose,
thinking how different
in our adversaries
we are from possums.
We try love—
the fist of words,
their opening hand.
And whether we play
dead or alive,
our pain, the slow
circulation of happiness,
our salt and work,
the stubborn questions
we endlessly
give names to
haunt us with choice.
Tom Healy, “A Possum Entering the Argument” from What the Right Hand Knows. Copyright © 2009 by Tom Healy. Reprinted by permission of Four Way Books.
Source:
What the Right Hand Knows (Four Way Books, 2009)
Discover this poem’s context and related poetry, articles, and media.
Poet
Tom Healy
b. 1961
POET’S REGION
U.S., Mid-Atlantic
Subjects
Living,
Health & Illness,
Death,
Relationships,
Love,
Home Life,
Nature,
Animals,
The Body,
Realistic & Complicated
Poetic Terms
Free Verse
Tom Healy was raised on a farm in Mount Vision, New York. He earned a BA in philosophy from Harvard University and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. His first collection of poetry, What the Right Hand Knows (2009), was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award and the 2009 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry.
Of Healy’s spare yet evocative poems, poet Carol Muske-Dukes commented in the Huffington Post: “From the . . .
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Poem Categorization
SUBJECT
Living,
Health & Illness,
Death,
Relationships,
Love,
Home Life,
Nature,
Animals,
The Body,
Realistic & Complicated
POET’S REGION
U.S., Mid-Atlantic
Poetic Terms
Free Verse
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