{"id":2331,"date":"2011-08-05T00:12:35","date_gmt":"2011-08-05T00:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/?p=2331"},"modified":"2011-08-05T00:12:35","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T00:12:35","slug":"poor-possum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/poor-possum\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor Possum"},"content":{"rendered":"

5″ x 7″<\/span><\/p>\n

From a group of five drawings of roadkill made while driving across the Smoky Mtns to teach at WCU years ago. Thanks to Ann Patchett for sending me the Gerald Stern poem below, a perfect pair.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Behaving Like a Jew
\nby\u00a0Gerald Stern<\/p>\n

When I got there the dead opossum looked like
\nan enormous baby sleeping on the road.
\nIt took me only a few seconds\u2014just
\nseeing him there\u2014with the hole in his back
\nand the wind blowing through his hair
\nto get back again into my animal sorrow.
\nI am sick of the country, the bloodstained
\nbumpers, the stiff hairs sticking through the grilles,
\nthe slimy highways, the heavy birds
\nrefusing to move;
\nI am sick of the spirit of Lindbergh over everything,
\nthat joy in death, that philosophical
\nunderstanding of carnage, that
\nconcentration on the species.
\n—I am going to be unappeased at the opossum’s death.
\nI am going to behave like a Jew
\nand touch his face, and stare into his eyes,
\nand pull him off the road.
\nI am not going to stand in a wet ditch
\nwith the Toyotas and the Chevys passing over me
\nat sixty miles an hour
\nand praise the beauty and the balance
\nand lose myself in the immortal lifestream
\nwhen my hands are still a little shaky
\nfrom his stiffness and his bulk
\nand my eyes are still weak and misty
\nfrom his round belly and his curved fingers
\nand his black whiskers and his little dancing feet.<\/p>\n

Related Images:<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5″ x 7″ From a group of five drawings of roadkill made while driving across the Smoky Mtns to teach at WCU years ago. Thanks to Ann Patchett for sending me the Gerald Stern poem below, a perfect pair. Behaving Like a Jew by\u00a0Gerald Stern When I got there the dead opossum looked like an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-drawings","category-na","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noahsaterstrom.com\/workaday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}