RACCOONLAND UNTER DAS ALL

THE HORSE IS HIGHER THAN THE LION

On a trip to Appleton WI this weekend

attending to various assignments

our eyes rose above

the gutters and sewers

during our raccoonoitering;

Just down College Avenue

a couple blocks from the Lawrence campus

and directly across the street

from the Copper Rock cafe

where our student daughter Erin works part-time

the usually sewer-studying editor and his assistant

let their eyes drift to the tops of the

weathered buildings, standing out

in their enduring variety

And, LO!

Two other animals reside

side-by-side on the parapets;

A lion, lowlier

and a horse at a summit adjacent

have held forth for untold decades

keeping watch over their Appleton flocks

by day and by night

as they pass in evolving cartages

or as perambulators

on the avenue;

the noble animals

from their apexian and penultimate positions

await - perhaps - the addition

as time washes parallel-by

on the mighty and near Fox River

a raccoon likeness;

The viewer might keep

his eyes set lower

much lower

as he traverses the urban causeway

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raccoonland unter das all