You may be Glaucomys volans or G. sabrinus
To the taxonomists who classified you.
To the rest of us you’re the little rodent that could.
You cruise from tree to tree, an implicit
“I think I can, I think I can” illuminating
Those great big purpose-filled eyes.
Fruit bats and northern saw-whet owls
Are on the animal kingdom’s aviation A list.
Your common name connotes
Aspiration and imitation,
But you go about your nocturnal business
So unaware, so unconcerned.
Forget Rocky (that’s Rocket J. Squirrel, thank you).
You are bona fide, the genuine article.
You fan out your patagia, and you’re off.
Still, gravity will always have its way with you,
Furry little night glider.
The hickory welcomes you with open arms.
This poem first appeared in The Long-Islander.
—
Joel Allegretti is the author of, most recently, Platypus (NYQ Books, 2017), a collection of poems, prose, and performance texts, and Our Dolphin (Thrice Publishing, 2016), a novella. He is the editor of Rabbit Ears: TV Poems (NYQ Books, 2015). The Boston Globe called Rabbit Ears “cleverly edited” and “a smart exploration of the many, many meanings of TV.”
