A Gaze of Raccoons

Watercolor painting.

Night after night
they travel toward dampness,
the stones of the river,
the silky ponds,
and spread a text
over the banks of sand
shelving to water…all night
they wander through lilies
and weeds, meander
the black rims
of the midsummer flow…
then vanish at dawn, climbing
upland through brambles and into
the secret trees.

Oh when the night wind wakes
and the white moon
flies up through the thickets,
i imagine them walking,
silvery, slumberous,
each a sharp set of teeth,
each a gray dreamer, prowling
over the sands, arranging,
night after summer night,
the myths of the morning.

Mary Oliver