Surviving: the Life of a Western Ringtail Possum

If you can survive the zoom of the cars, 

The dark of a night without the bright stars. 

If you can survive the beat of the sun and the bite of the rain, 

The days without food, the days without gain. 

If you can stay fed but not get fat, 

If you can walk the wild wire as an acrobat; across the pit of death. 

If you can survive the fall to the ground, 

And the hasty hunt of the hungry hound. 

If you can scamper skyward to the safety of a towering tree, 

If you can wait out the bark of a dog’s blind rage after you flee. 

If you can prepare for the ambush of the climbing cat with its claws, 

If you can survive the feral feline as you dash from its jaws. 

If you can raise your joeys, feed them what you’ve caught, 

If you can teach your little ones what you have been taught. 

If you can bear the pain – the death of a baby, 

If you can survive the guilt, “Could I have saved them, maybe?” 

If you can understand that you are just a feather in a hurricane, 

If you can comprehend that you are a sardine in a sea of sharks. 

Then you will know what it is to be a possum, 

Because we do not live life, we survive it.