Synchronicity
--In casually unconnected events occurring simultaneously
are the seeds of orchestrated coincidence.
One was lumped against the curb
Belly up, its right paw outstretched.
The other one
Had made it farther into the street.
It too was belly up, both front legs
Reaching upward, perpendicular to the street.
Something
In the posture
Of the lump against the curb
Said male. Something
In the turned-back-stance
Of the other said female.
As I drove past their corner, I hoped
Not to see their pitiful possum bodies
On my next trip out of the neighborhood.
Many times I had watched them herd
Their babies away from the traffic
Into the shelter of the ravine.
I had marveled at their urban
Survival skills as I stopped at the light.
I watched over them again
As their bodies stiffened, but refused
To flatten into the innocuous,
Grey-brown blotches
Dotting city pavement.
Her front leg kept its pose
For the five days she lay exposed.
No one purposely drove over her body.
No one separated the two or pushed them
Off the right lane of traffic.
Their babies did not seek them out.
In her stiff outstretched arm
I suddenly saw the clawed hand
Of my elderly neighbor
Pulling her senile husband back
Into the house.
©Katherine M. Searle
gazredtoyota@hotmail.com
