Possum (June)

Playing possum means pretending you’re dead, useful knowledge when reading Eliot. Rousing the possum is its opposite, Australian for livening things up, creating controversy. This June Saturday, my midwinter visit to the barber, provides other possibilities for ‘possum’. The haircut in the chair expounds: “So she says, my neighbour, can you do something about your possums? MY POSSUMS! She says, those possums come over from your fruit trees. You need to get rid of them. So I say, they live in your roof. They’re not my possums. She says ‘your possums’! They’re her possums.” Possums themselves elude this anthropomorphic roundabout.