Like A Tiny Dinosaur

By John I. Blair

Like a tiny dinosaur
With fur instead of skin,
A possum wanders
Through its day
Waving a naked tail
Behind it in the air,
Poking a narrow nose
In places food might be.

Not finicky about its fare,
Yet a possum takes great care
At cleanliness, washing
Thoroughly with paws
And tongue when it
Has eaten, grooming
Every hair into its spot.

Possum forebears
Roamed the Earth
When real dinosaurs
Had newly disappeared,
Surviving fifty times as long
As we naked apes can claim.

And yet we sneer at them,
We who may
Destroy
Their home
And ours.

©2018 John I. Blair, 10/13/2018