barbs I put on the top
of the fence never worked
the motion-activated sprinkler
soaked me more than them
an electric wire didn’t do the trick either
simply shorting out if fallen limbs
hadn’t already broken the circuit
so I invited the masked bandits in
well my pond did and the large
goldfish dinners it promised
somehow they never dined
perhaps their odd nocturnal shadows
and pawing pushed the fish deeper
coons that still visit must be like us
enjoying the torpedo-glides and turns
bugs deftly picked off the surface
the faces they like to make
I bet my largest koi smiles
when he sees their black and white
mugs at the water’s edge
hungry for another trick
to mull on the long way home
Comments