The Possum

Yesterday, I was working in my yard when I saw a possum
 Swinging in the foothills and he was all beat up and hobbling
 I got a closer look and his foot was mangled
 I was woken up earlier by what I thought was the cat tangled
 But it was him who got it bad from the cat that night
 Slowly down the hill when he slipped under the fence
 I brought myself up to check him out; he found the milk under the air conditioner
 I pointed him out to Caroline, she crouched down and he was shaking and full of fear
 And when she stood up, I asked, "Baby, why you crying?"
 She said, "Because he's cute and he's down there and he's dying"
 I went up to my room and I got a call from Justin
 He was in San Francisco and Godflesh was playing
 Caroline drove me halfway there where I met Tony
 And we drove to the city and we parked out in front of the DNA
 Justin and us, we had some laughs and we took photographs backstage
 And our guts were protruding and all of them and we just kept laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing
 Laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing
 Laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing
 Laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing
 And when Godflesh took the stage, Tony and I, we stood there floored
 Drum machines hammered and feedback blazed
 For a moment, everybody grew silent
 While Justin tuned his guitar; like a church, it got so quiet
 Just for a minute, and then they all soared together
 Like a car off a cliff, we crashed and burned over and over and again and again
 They threw hard vicious guttural B-flats
 Justin runs to the mic like a hungry grey white
 He was on fire, giving it everything he had and killing it that night!
 Tearing out his prey and it came to a screeching halt
 A relentless and beautiful voice, a 70 minute assault
 And then he bowed down and he set his seven string electric guitar down
 And screeched to holy hell and they disappeared and off went the crowd
 Then we had pizza and I came back to my apartment in the city
 Until 4AM, I watched movies and my ears were ringing
 And I called Caroline out at the house
 We talked about the concert, about the possum down in the nook
 And the ocean air came through my window
 And the sound of foghorns, and then when I woke
 Godflesh was down in LA
 Tony had an open house that day
 And I looked out at Sausalito
 And Caroline was on her way back from Lake Town
 I got a call from Paolo Sorrentino
 I'd be off to Switzerland in a week or so
 Caroline came home that night and we had dinner and watched HBO
 And I'm grateful for her love and for my friends
 And to have seen the possum walk its last walk along the island
 I want to grow old and to walk my last walk
 Knowing that I, too, gave it everything I got
 But again it's all roadblocks and all obstacles I fought
 For to live another day is much better than to not
 And I'd like to die with music in my ears
 The piano of Maurice Ravel or Godflesh's guttural growls from hell
 The sound that evokes good memories of being young and able to get around
 And I'd like Caroline beside me
 That old possum lost the fight
 His sad, black eyes; what a thing to see on a glowing Easter Sunday
 But that rodent was loved and he's still thought of
 Church bells rang that day
 I remember hearing them in the afternoon just as we left
 He had to have heard them too