LEAH DODD
Soulmates
last night I locked eyes with a possum
its gaze moon-dark and gleaming
through the bedroom window
it trying to get in
me trying to get out
I wished so hard for us to switch
we could parent-trap this baby
I offered the possum silently
it could make peanut butter toast
and sleep in my bed
I could run night wild
get to know mother nature
/
on the street back when it was safe
to speak to each other
a passing student
took out an earbud
to say
you guys just look so gorgeous!
I was carrying three litres of milk
like a braided full-lipped maiden
and J was carrying the baby
I am as gorgeous as a deadly chameleon
or a ‘beware of the dog’ sign
tattooed on a lower-back
I am as gorgeous as a vat of green slime
ready to be poured
over a group of unsuspecting
regional schoolchildren
this? I wanted to say to the student
forehead to forehead, preferably
shoulders held in a grip of wisdom
this is a lake of magma
and I am sinking further every day
/
the possum and I kept staring and staring
neither of us wanting to blink
in case the moment shattered
above us
I was reaching out an arm at a glacial pace
to open the window and
consummate the bond
when a car hooned through the valley below
blasting a dub remix
of The Wiggles’ Hot Potato
all the way up to my sweet new friend
whose eyes grew dinner-plate wide
and in the flick
of a thick tail
scampered away
to the black undergrowth
behind
the lighted path
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leah Dodd (she/her) grew up in Taranaki and lives in Pōneke, where she is currently finishing an MA at the IIML. Her poems can be found in Starling, Sweet Mammalian, Food Court, Stasis, Mayhem, and other places.