# Procyon Prowling: alliterative verse

Author: Altivo
Tags: Alliterative verse, No-Yiff, Poetry, Raccoon

Something different: this is not metrical nor rhyming verse. It is in the form of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, the most famous example of which is Beowulf. There are four stresses per line, two per halfline, and helluva lot of alliteration.Procyon lotor is the scientific nomenclature for the raccoon, by the way. That name suggests a "proto-canine" and was given long ago, before we knew from DNA studies that raccoons are more closely related to bears than they are to canines.

 **Procyon Prowling**  
_by Altivo Overo (copyright 2020)_

In silence she slinks   through the silver-dewed garden,  
Wandering walkways,   wishing for sustenance.  
Her three ring-tailed children   thirst in the home den  
For this matron of many,   a milk-bearing clan queen.  
Soon will she show them,   in single file leading,  
Walking through woodland   to where there is food  
And water for washing   as will be required  
To live on their own   in lonely repose.  
But now has she need   of nourishing foodstuff  
Herself, before comes here   the herald of dawn.  
Black eyes like buttons,   buried in face mask,  
Search not so well   for her sight is too poor.  
All growing around her   too green are the berries,  
The sweet roots not ripened   nor succulent yet.  
Thus takes she her tread   to the tall-hanging feeder  
For birds it's intended   but better than none.  
Alas! Though long-reaching   and laboring efforts  
She makes, it gains nothing.  A mumble, a hiss,  
And she turns to the trash cans,   a top that is loose.  
She knows it so well   as she nears it again.  
Brief clatter. She's in.   A complaint from a dog  
Afar wills it otherwise   but wonder, none comes  
To break up her feasting   in bones and waste matter  
Abandoned and left   to best care for her now.  
The brood that is waiting   will be cared for also  
No dearth of dark faces   to delve in the night.

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/ZmMNb5ln