[violaine]

Opossum Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that’s but of dark and bright
Meet in her fur and beady eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray less free,
Had half impaired the ’possum’s grace
Which swings in every raven tree.
Glint softly lightens o’er her face,
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how chaste their dwelling-place.

And on that nose or o’er that brow
So soft, so calm, so eloquent,
The grins that win, the feints that throw,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A ’possum’s heart is innocent.

http://opossum.craton.net/opoetry.htm