Raccoons - Oct. 26, 2024

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