Barter System

Chewed-up tomatoes spoil my morning coffee.
A possum got into my patch last night.
He’s been hanging around here since spring:
Before I planted these beauties he’s ravaging,
He was stealing his breakfast every dawn
From the upper branches of my apricot tree.
(I caught him at it, waved. He didn’t wave back.)
Now I think maybe I can offer him a bribe.
If I give him a tomato, gratis, no charge,
Maybe he’ll leave the rest of them alone.
After dark, whiskey making my own craft
Seem cleverer even than it did this morning,
I park a solitary Better Boy atop the fence.
It works. Come light, that tomato’s turned to a twirl
Of possum shit. Deal done. He even left me a tip.