Song for Mike and Story of my pet "O"possum

I wrote this song for Mike a few years ago. It was one of those odd times I woke up out of deep sleep and grabbed a pen. I love it when that happens. It only occurs about three times per decade or so. He was so sad about the end of his relationship and I was trying desperately to end mine. I gave it to him and after he started reading it, in his rock-boy fashion "says "oh God... " like, "you sappy dork"(his lyrics are EPIC, they are nothing short of historical, so I knew what I was getting myself into) yet, this is the same rock-boy that held me while I bawled in his arms on top of his roof looking out at the SF lights. I just remembered how scary it was climbing that ladder to get up there. He used to scale telephone poles after the "Casa Loma", our local watering hole back in the day, closed down at 2 AM. He was always crawling around on and climbing up things. I got in a bad car accident on the I-5 not long after writing this. I was heading North though, leaving L.A.- Still be careful what you write! Train wreck, car wreck, south, north. Whatever. Anyway, he pretty much saved me. We totally bonded during that time. One time I said in a fearful, weak, moment " What if I broke my thumb? What if I got really sick and couldn't work, what the hell would I do??" He said " You would stay with me, I would take care of you." That, is friendship.

Southern bound train wreck
Face down with a bleeding
Seahorse on my neck
You weren't what I expected
Never met who I thought I'd known
Took my feet along cold rocks
To carry out my soul.
Romeo found me in the fog
And pulled at my sweatshirt hood
Like a silly monster dog
He called me names to sex his word lust
And I felt like a queen covered in highway dust
He knew what love took
And what it took away
So many stolen lovers
Hidden in shallow graves
He is a man among many
But really many men
The human body
is much too small
To hold them all in
He is the strongest rope
I've ever been offered
But in his strength
There is nothing softer
I tried to balance on a string before
Believing in its lightness
Sure that less
was really more

He knew what love took

And what it took away

So many stolen lovers

Hidden in Shallow graves

On a different note. How cute is this cottage? Here is a day shot and a night shot. This is where it all goes down. The opossum intrusions, the squirrel fights, the crow SCREAMS.

I know some of you know about my opossum problem but for those of you who don't.. Here is the gruesome story.

I woke up a few weeks ago, about three in the morning thinking "that's not how my cat eats." I know that sounds strange but I sleep in a loft that looks over the downstairs living area. The cat bowls are down there and Leo is free to roam in and out via the back door. This is a decision I made a long time ago. My cat was wild until he was about 4 months old. He fended for himself as a kitten and there is no way I could live with myself trapping him inside. My yard is huge and surrounded by trees. That would be wrong. There are real dangers to this of course. There are streets he could cross above, there are coyotes, and mean neighborhood cats that want to fight with my sweet little baby. I told him one day "Hey dude, you're on your own life path. I have to trust your instincts and left you be free. If you get hurt I'll be crushed so watch your back homey, make Mama proud." So, that's where I'm at. So, I wake up to this horrifically slurppy style of eating, grab the flashlight and see this scene: Leo is sitting about 5 feet away looking calmly at the opossum eating his food. The opossum is big and white-ish with a rat looking tail that made me want to barf. I scream and hiss at the thing and he turns, looks up at me like "what?" and goes back to eating every last drop of food. He then saunters out, practically strutting. The thing is. He had really cute eyes. Really cute. Regardless. GROSS. So do I trap Leo in or out at night? I want him to be able to come inside if a coyote comes but he'll keep me awake if I keep him in. The opossum is always around. I hear it every night, I see it hanging in the yard under moonlit night skies. I looked them up on the Internet and apparently they are marsupials and protected. There are opossum societies. It is illegal to harm them. Not that I would but still. It came in another night DYING of thirst. I mean it drank a huge bowl of water. Again, GROSS. So, I started putting out it's own food and water and it stopped breaking and entering. Every morning the bowls are empty. It's a small price to pay I think.