Wednesday, September 9, 2009

TC: Species


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File:Waschbaer auf dem Dach.jpg






Ascension of Venus
better late than never low in the southwest

Full moon a half degree wide
just after sunset peeping

Later still, indigo cheesecloth night

Redwood cloaked in fog
raccoons moving from floor to floor,
from room to room
in the fog,

with a sound like thin paper tearing






File:Raccons in a tree.jpg








Raccoon on roof, early morning
: photo by Carsten Volkwein, 2007
Raccoons in a tree: photo by Gary J. Wood, 2006

4 comments:

xileinparadise said...

More tales from the country, re: cuddly critters.

There must be something about these furry bandits that sparks recognition in us, maybe speaking to a time when we all shared the night and a tree limb. It could be the perceived intelligence of their binocular gaze, their prehensile dexterity, their familial coherence.

As the story goes, there used to be an Italian restaurant down the block run by an old guy named Angelo that featured a nightly Raccoon Comedy Show. This consisted of a lighted platform easily viewed from the bar where, every night after the kitchen closed down, they would put out piles of leftover pasta (sans sauce) for the raccoons. The comedy obviously came from watching them load up on carbs and their near human strategies in dealing with the tangled strands of spaghetti. There were some roly-poly critters waddling around the hood in those days. When old Angelo died, the raccoon wore black arm bands for weeks afterwards.

TC said...

Lovely story, Pat.

The raccoons who hang out chez nous are great carb lovers also. Three-week-old pastries are cool with them. Once one of them got into our basement and waddled right up the stairs into the house. Beyond fearless, making itself right at home.

xileinparadise said...

Tom, they rule their space. We are the interlopers. They must sense that we view them as handsome beasts and that we give them the benefit of the doubt, leeway, if you will. Unfairly, on our paved motorways they are fair game, nightly. Should we fault their hubris?

TC said...

Pat,

This is exactly how I see it. Their hubris is all they've got. I do my best to aid and abet it (and them) at every opportunity.