MASSACHUSETTS COYOTE
Ten o’clock. I drag the last of the trash
from the basement, stuff it all into the rolling barrel,
pull everything out to the curb. Walking back
I spot yellow eyes over by the shed. I think it’s a
dog, but instead, it’s a coyote, all alone,
wary but unafraid, staring me down. In the dark
I can just see the smoke-smudged smears
down his flanks.
I turn my back and head inside;
it’s just not that unusual anymore. Thirty years ago,
it would have been unheard of — coyotes
were a Western thing, almost mythic. Twenty years ago
we started to see them, cat-eaters, survivors,
exotic reminders of something we’d forgotten.
Now they’re just part of the fabric,
and the night that goes by without
a single yip is worthy of remark.
The news is on in the living room. Someone’s
dead, someone’s dying,
someone’s angry, afraid,
sick, distressed, starving, poison is everywhere;
it’s all going to hell and there’s nothing
to be done. I sit back in the big chair
and listen hard to the night: hoping the coyote
has something to say. After all,
they came
all this way
from out west
for something.
Dark Matter 
August 10th, 2004 at 5:36 pm
You’re “fringe” piece? Truthful.
see you tomorrow, I hope. Mel
August 10th, 2004 at 5:36 pm
You’re “fringe” piece? Truthful.
see you tomorrow, I hope. Mel
August 10th, 2004 at 5:36 pm
You’re “fringe” piece? Truthful.
see you tomorrow, I hope. Mel
August 10th, 2004 at 5:36 pm
You’re “fringe” piece? Truthful.
see you tomorrow, I hope. Mel
August 10th, 2004 at 5:36 pm
You’re “fringe” piece? Truthful.
see you tomorrow, I hope. Mel
August 10th, 2004 at 5:36 pm
You’re “fringe” piece? Truthful.
see you tomorrow, I hope. Mel
August 10th, 2004 at 1:36 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Oh, I bet it’s more than that. Shit, I see two or three a week around here.
I used to see packs of them when I worked up by Worcester Airport twenty years ago, coming out to pick scraps that workers had dropped from their lunches in the parking lot.
August 10th, 2004 at 1:36 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Oh, I bet it’s more than that. Shit, I see two or three a week around here.
I used to see packs of them when I worked up by Worcester Airport twenty years ago, coming out to pick scraps that workers had dropped from their lunches in the parking lot.
August 10th, 2004 at 1:36 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Oh, I bet it’s more than that. Shit, I see two or three a week around here.
I used to see packs of them when I worked up by Worcester Airport twenty years ago, coming out to pick scraps that workers had dropped from their lunches in the parking lot.
August 10th, 2004 at 1:36 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Oh, I bet it’s more than that. Shit, I see two or three a week around here.
I used to see packs of them when I worked up by Worcester Airport twenty years ago, coming out to pick scraps that workers had dropped from their lunches in the parking lot.
August 10th, 2004 at 1:36 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Oh, I bet it’s more than that. Shit, I see two or three a week around here.
I used to see packs of them when I worked up by Worcester Airport twenty years ago, coming out to pick scraps that workers had dropped from their lunches in the parking lot.
August 10th, 2004 at 12:19 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve requested the book via interlibrary loan, though I imagine that it will upset me to no end. I’m still haunted by the memory of the night I pulled into a rural gas station and was stopped dead by the sight of frozen coyote corpses stacked like firewood in the back of a pickup…
August 10th, 2004 at 12:19 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve requested the book via interlibrary loan, though I imagine that it will upset me to no end. I’m still haunted by the memory of the night I pulled into a rural gas station and was stopped dead by the sight of frozen coyote corpses stacked like firewood in the back of a pickup…
August 10th, 2004 at 12:19 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve requested the book via interlibrary loan, though I imagine that it will upset me to no end. I’m still haunted by the memory of the night I pulled into a rural gas station and was stopped dead by the sight of frozen coyote corpses stacked like firewood in the back of a pickup…
August 10th, 2004 at 12:19 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve requested the book via interlibrary loan, though I imagine that it will upset me to no end. I’m still haunted by the memory of the night I pulled into a rural gas station and was stopped dead by the sight of frozen coyote corpses stacked like firewood in the back of a pickup…
August 10th, 2004 at 12:19 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve requested the book via interlibrary loan, though I imagine that it will upset me to no end. I’m still haunted by the memory of the night I pulled into a rural gas station and was stopped dead by the sight of frozen coyote corpses stacked like firewood in the back of a pickup…
August 10th, 2004 at 12:10 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
yup. what i’ve seen suggests that the coyote population explosion is a direct evolutionary result our attempting to get rid of them.
August 10th, 2004 at 12:10 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
yup. what i’ve seen suggests that the coyote population explosion is a direct evolutionary result our attempting to get rid of them.
August 10th, 2004 at 12:10 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
yup. what i’ve seen suggests that the coyote population explosion is a direct evolutionary result our attempting to get rid of them.
August 10th, 2004 at 12:10 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
yup. what i’ve seen suggests that the coyote population explosion is a direct evolutionary result our attempting to get rid of them.
August 10th, 2004 at 12:10 pm
Re: To live and die in LA…
yup. what i’ve seen suggests that the coyote population explosion is a direct evolutionary result our attempting to get rid of them.
August 10th, 2004 at 12:01 pm
To live and die in LA…
Is the title of an excellent essay on the Coyotes of Los Angeles, by David Quamman. It’s in a book called Wild Thoughts from Wild Places. The essay says that the LA animal control recieves several hundred complaints a year, usually things like I saw a coyote on sunset blvd and it looked at my 5 year old and licked its chops or a coyote came in through the pet flap and disembowled my poodle on the kitchen floor.
Animal control kills some 120 coyotes a year out there…there may be as many as four times that, and current research suggests that our 80 years of systematically trying to kill those animals has only bred stronger and smarter coyotes.
(rather a bit of book report geeking over here. sorry.)
August 10th, 2004 at 12:01 pm
To live and die in LA…
Is the title of an excellent essay on the Coyotes of Los Angeles, by David Quamman. It’s in a book called Wild Thoughts from Wild Places. The essay says that the LA animal control recieves several hundred complaints a year, usually things like I saw a coyote on sunset blvd and it looked at my 5 year old and licked its chops or a coyote came in through the pet flap and disembowled my poodle on the kitchen floor.
Animal control kills some 120 coyotes a year out there…there may be as many as four times that, and current research suggests that our 80 years of systematically trying to kill those animals has only bred stronger and smarter coyotes.
(rather a bit of book report geeking over here. sorry.)
August 10th, 2004 at 12:01 pm
To live and die in LA…
Is the title of an excellent essay on the Coyotes of Los Angeles, by David Quamman. It’s in a book called Wild Thoughts from Wild Places. The essay says that the LA animal control recieves several hundred complaints a year, usually things like I saw a coyote on sunset blvd and it looked at my 5 year old and licked its chops or a coyote came in through the pet flap and disembowled my poodle on the kitchen floor.
Animal control kills some 120 coyotes a year out there…there may be as many as four times that, and current research suggests that our 80 years of systematically trying to kill those animals has only bred stronger and smarter coyotes.
(rather a bit of book report geeking over here. sorry.)
August 10th, 2004 at 12:01 pm
To live and die in LA…
Is the title of an excellent essay on the Coyotes of Los Angeles, by David Quamman. It’s in a book called Wild Thoughts from Wild Places. The essay says that the LA animal control recieves several hundred complaints a year, usually things like I saw a coyote on sunset blvd and it looked at my 5 year old and licked its chops or a coyote came in through the pet flap and disembowled my poodle on the kitchen floor.
Animal control kills some 120 coyotes a year out there…there may be as many as four times that, and current research suggests that our 80 years of systematically trying to kill those animals has only bred stronger and smarter coyotes.
(rather a bit of book report geeking over here. sorry.)
August 10th, 2004 at 12:01 pm
To live and die in LA…
Is the title of an excellent essay on the Coyotes of Los Angeles, by David Quamman. It’s in a book called Wild Thoughts from Wild Places. The essay says that the LA animal control recieves several hundred complaints a year, usually things like I saw a coyote on sunset blvd and it looked at my 5 year old and licked its chops or a coyote came in through the pet flap and disembowled my poodle on the kitchen floor.
Animal control kills some 120 coyotes a year out there…there may be as many as four times that, and current research suggests that our 80 years of systematically trying to kill those animals has only bred stronger and smarter coyotes.
(rather a bit of book report geeking over here. sorry.)
August 10th, 2004 at 11:39 am
Re: Oh my god.
Okay, so now I’m *really* grinning from ear to ear. You made this coyote girl very happy. Thanks.
BTW, have you ever read _Buffalo Girls Won’t You Come Out Tonight?_ by Ursula K. LeGuin? My favorite portrayal of Coyote. Especially since it’s a she coyote. Gorgeous stuff.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:39 am
Re: Oh my god.
Okay, so now I’m *really* grinning from ear to ear. You made this coyote girl very happy. Thanks.
BTW, have you ever read _Buffalo Girls Won’t You Come Out Tonight?_ by Ursula K. LeGuin? My favorite portrayal of Coyote. Especially since it’s a she coyote. Gorgeous stuff.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:39 am
Re: Oh my god.
Okay, so now I’m *really* grinning from ear to ear. You made this coyote girl very happy. Thanks.
BTW, have you ever read _Buffalo Girls Won’t You Come Out Tonight?_ by Ursula K. LeGuin? My favorite portrayal of Coyote. Especially since it’s a she coyote. Gorgeous stuff.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:39 am
Re: Oh my god.
Okay, so now I’m *really* grinning from ear to ear. You made this coyote girl very happy. Thanks.
BTW, have you ever read _Buffalo Girls Won’t You Come Out Tonight?_ by Ursula K. LeGuin? My favorite portrayal of Coyote. Especially since it’s a she coyote. Gorgeous stuff.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:39 am
Re: Oh my god.
Okay, so now I’m *really* grinning from ear to ear. You made this coyote girl very happy. Thanks.
BTW, have you ever read _Buffalo Girls Won’t You Come Out Tonight?_ by Ursula K. LeGuin? My favorite portrayal of Coyote. Especially since it’s a she coyote. Gorgeous stuff.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:28 am
Re: Oh my god.
I thought of you while I was working on it. A radical rewrite of something I’ve been trying to do for awhile. Seeing the coyote last night, and seeing how blase about it I’d become, triggered this version. Thanks.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:28 am
Re: Oh my god.
I thought of you while I was working on it. A radical rewrite of something I’ve been trying to do for awhile. Seeing the coyote last night, and seeing how blase about it I’d become, triggered this version. Thanks.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:28 am
Re: Oh my god.
I thought of you while I was working on it. A radical rewrite of something I’ve been trying to do for awhile. Seeing the coyote last night, and seeing how blase about it I’d become, triggered this version. Thanks.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:28 am
Re: Oh my god.
I thought of you while I was working on it. A radical rewrite of something I’ve been trying to do for awhile. Seeing the coyote last night, and seeing how blase about it I’d become, triggered this version. Thanks.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:28 am
Re: Oh my god.
I thought of you while I was working on it. A radical rewrite of something I’ve been trying to do for awhile. Seeing the coyote last night, and seeing how blase about it I’d become, triggered this version. Thanks.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:20 am
Oh my god.
This is beautiful. I’m particularly fond of coyotes, and this gave me chills. Thank you.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:20 am
Oh my god.
This is beautiful. I’m particularly fond of coyotes, and this gave me chills. Thank you.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:20 am
Oh my god.
This is beautiful. I’m particularly fond of coyotes, and this gave me chills. Thank you.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:20 am
Oh my god.
This is beautiful. I’m particularly fond of coyotes, and this gave me chills. Thank you.
August 10th, 2004 at 11:20 am
Oh my god.
This is beautiful. I’m particularly fond of coyotes, and this gave me chills. Thank you.