Karen Head lives in Georgia, and opossums seem to live everywhere. You may drive past a dead one on a roadside somewhere today. Here’s a poem in which the poet chooses to keep a safe distance from wildness. Head’s most recent book is “Lost on Purpose,” published by Iris Press in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Proximity

The young opossum foraging

outside my office window

seems unconcerned by my presence–

after all, I’m the one who’s trapped.

I snack on almonds, watch

it nibble whatever it can find,

and though I am inclined to share,

I know that opening the window

will change the world.