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DocuSign Envelope ID:3E2A8197-2735-44CA-8810-5AD399233576 <br /> Pam Baggett <br /> 8800 Wilkerson Road <br /> Cedar Grove NC 27231 <br /> 919-732-9403 <br /> nightair@mindspring.com <br /> To a Friend, with Gratitude <br /> You listened as I described last year's <br /> mountain visit, how I moved from the road <br /> a rain of acorns, buckeyes, scarlet magnolia seeds <br /> smaller than a fingernail. I was so tender <br /> from my separation, crazed, really, at marriage's end <br /> I couldn't bear the thought of them crushed. <br /> To you, I vowed this trip to walk closer <br /> to sanity, to recognize each creature's fate <br /> as its own— <br /> until I came upon the mother possum <br /> split open from a car's hard blow, four infants <br /> scattered around her, hairless and blind. <br /> I did what you would do: found a stranger <br /> who lent a shovel, plastic bags to keep blood <br /> from my hands. I picked up the little ones thrashing <br /> on hot asphalt, placed them in shaded grass <br /> at road's edge, worked the blade beneath the mother, <br /> a bellyful of babies still in her pouch, latched <br /> to cooling teats. I laid them all together, <br /> waited as her young pawed the air, slowly, <br /> slower. For pity's sake, for sanity. <br /> Appeared in San Pedro River Review, Spring 2017 <br />