COYOTE YEAR

last year started an exact midnight sky  

with a coyote race-track galloping 

down the yellow line of your street

we perched like it was a normal party 

and watched her run from the porch

then it was the next day, and the next

and the frayed year was 

til yesterday, 1/31/2021

we walked around the sparkle park 

for human small talk and hard talk 

I thought we were doing pretty good 

at being pretty good 

when a silver daylight coyote bounded out in front of us 

a fat squirrel limp in her mouth

sprinting the width of the ice field 

so pretty and evil and right

‘I’m scared’ I said

and you lurched for your phone

then we both gave up and in