Muskrat Woodpile Ramble

♥Muskrat Tango from Old Goldsboro♥

It started when she sent me dirt

My sister-in-law retired to county nearby

dug that soil from my childhood home

Her trusty doggy kept a guarding eye

Then a friend made a little film

of Raccoons that were so funny

digging in the trash with curiosity

wisely choosing peanut butter with honey

His mind flashes back with a tremble

as fear of his outhouse trips as night

when he saw furry dashing creature

before the moon and stars did alight

between that toilet and the woodpile

it would have been just curiosity

during the sun of day no problem

but darkness was a devilish decree

now, still, so many decades later

as old age drops flesh and so much hair

that queasy galling fright ignites terror

As his mind seems to shout “beware!”

Playing in the hothouse of time

childlike passion ignites fright

touches close to his pets of play

frolicking with Susie so bright

This docile raccoon loved to walk

like a dog leading him was such a feast

or flat on her belly, legs hanging down

over the carport wall showed she was no beast

a smile surely upon her restful face

dreaming of her favorite food I bet

along with a dreamy fruit of freedom

danced inside her tamed heart yet

♥

One day he too knew that she

would need to be set free

to run between the outhouse

and a woodpile of her own you see

Back to the forest she must scurry

called to make some babies of her own

that mating call had beckoned Charlie

the caged raccoon who had grown

to the point of a dancing that necessity

even me, a human, intuitively knew

this loving home she must leave

time to fly from our caged zoo

♪ ♥ ♪

Early morning remembrance

A muskrat that brother John captured one day

had one night ran frantically away

running towards that woodpile where he would stay

I knew that then in ambush he would lay

waiting just for me and not to play

and special thanks to Gretchen I must say

digging up soil where I did work and play

6 to 8 July 2024

©James M. Frase-White