Poetry Friday — Raccoon

Today our drama was a sick raccoon, right around the corner from our house.

My elder daughter spotted it on our way out this morning — first excitedly (because other than evidence of emptied cat bowls, we hardly ever actually see them) and then, as we realized it was lurching and what raccoon in its right mind would be out in the heat of a Texas summer, the excitement tempered and she grew quiet and sad.

My younger daughter began to cry. 
She said she was scared although we later determined that she was scared for the raccoon, not of it.

There was much scurrying on our part, to call the wildlife rescue folk and to check in with the neighborhood listserve which has been busy with news of distemper in the coon population.

And sure enough, it was distemper this time around, too. 
By this afternoon he had died — rather quietly and with decidely less chaos than he might’ve met in a net and cage and bumpy truck.
So that’s good.

But still.

When you live in the middle of a city you want the wild things to be seen and to survive.

Raccoon
By Anne Sexton

Coon, why did you come to this dance
with a mask on? Why not the tin man
and his rainbow girl? Why not Racine,
his hair marcelled down to his chest?

(Read the rest here…)

18 Responses to “Poetry Friday — Raccoon”

  1. Anonymous

    TadMack says:

    I’m so sorry the raccoon died. One really does want to feel that one lives successfully side-by-side with nature, but this isn’t always the case… wish the girls hadn’t seen it, but I guess this is one of those Life Lesson things…

    This poem is interesting — I’ve never yet read a light-hearted Anne Sexton, and the fact that she says ‘Coon’ instead of ‘raccoon’ made me wonder if it had a racial implication and subtler, darker themes. I’m not sure how Jean Racine (I’m assuming this is to whom she refers, with his big hair) ties into this, either, but as always, Anne Sexton gives me something to think about!

  2. saralholmes

    Hugs to your daughters. I hate to see a wild thing dead in the city. It seems so wrong.

    Anne Sexton, you are creepy. 🙂

  3. jamarattigan

    We see quite a few wild critters in our woods, including raccoons, and not without guilt that building our house has removed some of their habitat. So far, no distemper, but once a raccoon went limping down our driveway. We wanted so much to help him. Whatever we see — deer,chipmunks,raccoons, groundhogs, possums, squirrels, snakes, birds — they bring us a lot of joy and healing. Hugs to your girls.

  4. kellyrfineman

    I am glad the raccoon died, given what was ailing him, but very sorry for your wee one. I recall how I suffered over small dead things when I was a child. Nature is not always kind.

  5. cloudscome

    That’s a hard lesson for your girl. I hope she gets to see some healthy wild things soon. I remember loving the book Rascal when I was a girl.

  6. Anonymous

    Thank you for sharing this. What a hard way to spend the day.

  7. kellyrfineman

    My friend Angela () has been crying over dead wildlife in our suburbia, too. In her case, it was a baby bunny that she’s been looking out for for almost a week.