Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Sara MillerOctober 04, 2004

I took the possum apart by myself.
There were no instruments, per se;
mostly it was questions, telepathy.
But these were enough.

They revealed that the middle of the possum
and the middle of the night are one and the same.
The night is all that is in him.
It is how he goes, how he secretly lives.
It is what he is hiding.

Now it is no mere dream of the night
that occupies the possum, nor revelations
in the night, nor expectations of day
begotten by night, nor any yearnings
or conjurings thereof—just night,
the blackness and breathing.

There is nothing to be done, of course.
Night is uncorrectable.
And I am not now, nor have I ever been, a healer.
I just go into the woods.
Then I go deeper.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

In his message for the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Leo XIV encouraged parishes to put more effort into caring for the elderly.
Amid concern over immigration enforcement raids in the area, the bishop of San Bernardino, California, on July 8 issued a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for the faithful if they fear for their well-being.
Father Joshua Whitfield of Dallas, Texas spoke to OSV News after the devastating flash flooding in Texas on July 4.
Although I had set out to answer the question, “Who is Pope Leo XIV?” the question I had succeeded in answering was “Who is Robert Prevost?”
Colleen DulleJuly 10, 2025