'Maintrunk Country Roadsong'

Driving south and travelling
not much over fifty,
I hit a possum ... 'Little
man,' I muttered chopping
down to second gear,
'I never meant you any harm.'

My friend with me, he himself
a man who loves such nights,
bright headlight nights, said
'Possums? just a bloody pest,
they're better dead!'
He's right of course.

So settling back, foot down hard,
Ohakune, Tangiwai -
as often blinded by
the single headlight of
a passing goods train as by
any passing car -

Let the Midnight Special shine
its ever-loving light on me:
they run a prison farm
somewhere round these parts;
men always on the run.
These men know such searchlight nights:

those wide shining
eyes of that young possum
full-beam back on mine,
watching me run over him ...
'Little man,
I never meant you any harm.'

   -- Sam Hunt