The Raccoon in the Moon

Raccoon on a chill and glistering night lay on his back bathed in glimmering light. The stars in the branches over his head shimmered and glittered and laughed at his bed.

They mocked and they teased and then they fell down, flickered and fluttered and flitted around. They giggled like girls and goaded like boys toasted with thimbles of vinegar noise

'til poor, cold Raccoon, unable to sleep, rose from the leaves and from counting his sheep. He shooed them away, the stars he called names, hissed and then snarled, rudely spoiling their games.

He opened his paws and showed forth his claws bared his white fangs set like swords in his jaws. He growled at the stars, and scared them away "Curse you! Get lost and find elsewhere to play!"

They laughed and they skittered, skipped far up high, drawing Raccoon's harried eyes to the sky. 'Twas then that Raccoon saw Fox so sublime, watching from there in the moon where he'd climbed.

Raccoon found a bottle, wrote Fox a note, corked up the bottle, and set it afloat upon the wet river, note dry inside. Moon's white reflection in River's smooth hide

shown up in Raccoon's dark eyes like a door opening wide on a bright tunnel floor. The bottle, it floated over the moon, sank in the water, was scooped in a spoon,

it fell through the river, moon and deep sky, landed by Fox far above, high and dry, who read Raccoon's note, and here's what it said: "Fox, my old friend, cop'ous tears I have shed.

"Down here where each day is want, crave, and care, life is all envy and pride and despair. And the noise! Oh, the noise! It pounds and it thrums, beats on my brain like timpani drums!

"Oh, Fox! My dear Fox! who lives in the air, please may I live in the quiet up there? I won't make a sound, nor steal 'way your place, hid in the dark of the moon I'll find space."

The Fox in the Moon, he read through the note, face in his paws, sank his claws in his coat. Then Fox shook his head and took up his pen, tapped with the pen on the end of his chin,

then sighed and decried the follies of pride, stretched 'cross his fangs, 'cross the moon bright and wide, an impish and foxy mischievous grin, turned to his paper and scratched with his pen.

This note to Raccoon he scratched with his claws: "Dear friend Raccoon, I've considered your cause. I'll gladly make room, up here on the moon. Braid you a rope from the grass and then soon

"you, too, will be resting here in the air joining with me, and the Horse, and the Hare, and Mouse, and his wife, and Wolf -- he won't bite -- oh, and those there, in the dark, out of sight.

"I'm sure we can all squeeze, twist, and contort making a space for another, Old Sport! A fine treat to hear your voice it will be Monday next week in Cacophony Spree.

"Cacophony Spree's our weekly to-do, here on the moon, and we'd love hearing you. We howl and we neigh, we squeak, and we snarl. Hare blows the doodlesack, Wolf plays guitar.

"But I, as I write this missal to you, think that the moon has become like a zoo, since all of these creatures stole my idea, leaving the Earth to take residence here.

"Methinks that perhaps I should have stayed home maybe been thankful, not restless to roam. In fact, dear Raccoon, I'll give you my place, once you have climbed and we meet face to face."

The fox, in the bottle, corked up the note, dropped the whole thing in the watery moat. The face of the moon, it rippled and swam, high in the sky over river and dam,

where eagerly peering, paws in the mere, waited Raccoon a response to appear. The moon in the water rippled and swam, coughed up the bottle three feet from the dam.

With trembling paw, Raccoon fished it out, freed Fox's note and then gave forth a shout! He picked up a pen and scrawled a reply: "Fox, my good friend, who has answered my cry

"with generous kindness, care, and good will, never would I such great paws dain to fill as those that lie curled 'neath you in your spot! Fool I have been for to covet your lot."

Raccoon set afloat his answer to Fox, skulked from the water, the moon, and the rocks. Then he on a chill and glistering night lay on his back bathed in glimmering light,

and thanked God above for stars and their noise, thankful for Fox, and for everyday joys.

The hearts filled with thanks for what they have got beat in the breasts of the happiest lot.

(November 2014)