This morning on my way to the Post Office I swerved to avoid a possum on the road. It was already dead but it doesn't seem right to mutilate the remains of unfortunate creatures who have run afoul of a technology beyond their comprehension.

I've rarely seen a live possum around here, although I see their remains often enough on the roads. They have primitive brains, I've read. Designed to cope with the world as it was during a distant, simpler epoch. Could a possum have avoided a brontosaurus more easily than an automobile?

Years ago I caught a few glimpses of a possum on the back porch of my parents' house. It arrived early in the morning to check out the cat's bowl. One time I witnessed the possum and the cat squared off over the chow, standing on opposite sides the bowl, snout to snout. The cat had enough sense not to attack and after awhile the possum ambled off.

I also saw the occassional possum waddling between the close-packed apartment buildings when I lived in Weehawken, New Jersey, across from Manhattan. They must have been attracted to the countless rubbish bins, although where they lived I can't say. There were a few vacant lots and tiny parks. Maybe they climbed up from the area down by the river where there was some neglected land. I always wondered what the possums on their nightly forays made of the Manhattan skyline.