Waiting for Supper
The raccoon’s nails click
on the wooden stairs
as she climbs the darkness
to the deck.
She waddles across
to the round white table
and crumb-mines
for bits of dropped burger
and chunks of strawberry
from tonight’s alfresco meal.
I watch her front paws dig
at the cracks in the deck,
search for fallen food.
I watch her lick
under the barbecue,
hungry for grease drippings.
She looks at the house.
Does she see me?
Or does she see
her own reflection
in the patio door?
Does she see
her mask and dense fur
and city-fed bulk?
She feels no danger,
no threat as
I unlock the door
and slide it open.
Still, she searches
for stolen feast.
Not until I open
the screen does
she hiss and clatter off,
clicking down
the wooden stairs
and across
the flagstones below.
I sense she is there,
there hidden
in the night woods
at the edge of the ravine.
I can’t see her
but her wild eyes
can see me.
Intelligent and patient,
she will wait
until my light goes out
and I climb to my bed.
She will click-clack
up the wooden stairs,
return
to explore and feast.
I feel her
watching,
waiting and watching
in the night woods.
The photo of the table is mine.
6 comments:
She'll be back!
They really are intelligent and beautiful characters, sometimes a bit too intelligent. We now know that "ours" had a few siblings... here we go again!
For those who have never had a raccoon encounter, you described her perfectly.Your writing skills are lovely.
Thank you for the comment and kind words. I like raccoons as long as they aren't inside the house.
How nice that the wild animals can share your meals! I've only ever once seen a raccoon, on a childhood holiday to California.
Raccoons can be nuisance animals too, but are fascinating to watch. They adapt to and learn quickly from any changes humans make. Perhaps, we inadvertantly teach them how to be smarter in outwitting us.
What a wonderful description of this smart animal! I saw plenty of raccoons during the years we lived in the house, but never on the deck. For a few weeks a couple of babies lived in the garage before we discovered them -- then moved out when we left the doors open for a few days. I often knew that raccoons had visited when we were foolhardy enough to put our garbage cans out overnight. No matter how well we secured the cans, these clever animals managed to find goodies and to leave what they didn't want for us foolish human beings to clean up.
It was startling to be standing there looking out at the deck as the raccoon was stopped and staring right back at me. They are smart...you can almost see them "thinking" their way round us and into the garbage. Thanks for your comment, Sally.
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