Classic Poem

Curled in his black-ringed tail drowsed he,
Gray Raccoon of the hollow tree;
But the North Wind called and he woke too soon;
Out from his hole came Gray Raccoon.

Sharp-faced, keen-eared, shrewdly wise,
Mischief bright in his dark brown eyes,
Over the frost-ridged path he crept
To the bowldered cave where the Black Bear slept.

Warm in his fur and his donjon keep,
Moween the Black Bear slept his sleep.
Led by the light of the wintry moon,
Into the den came Gray Raccoon.

There he came and there he saw;
Quick of eye and deft of paw
He stole the Black Bear's magic flask,
His medicine lance and his medicine mask!

Warned by the cry of the Great Horned Owl,
Moween awoke with a wrathful growl;
Down he came like the mad typhoon
Hard on the trail of Gray Raccoon.

Gray Raccoon shook the magic flask,
He covered his face with the medicine mask,
He drove to the sky the wizard lance,
He danced the North Wind's medicine dance.

The North Wind stormed with a trumpet blare,
Full in the way of the raging bear
Heaping the snow like a lake-shore dune,
Saving the hide of Gray Raccoon.

Gray Raccoon is a hardened case
With the medicine mask on his elfin face,
And his dark brown eyes have an impish gleam
As he washes his food in the purling stream.

And you'll know that he wakes from his winter sleep
When the North Wind comes with a rollicking sweep
And the snow wraiths whirl to the eldritch tune
Of the medicine dance of Gray Raccoon.