See the coyote over there?
I asked the woman, who stopped
to watch us watching the coyote
nosing its sore-footed way
through freshly mowed park lawn,
for the moment paying no attention
whatsoever to the fact it had
metamorphosed from wary scavenger
to topic of conversation,
that despite the animal’s casual
ignoring of us, we were
the ones on full alert.

I see it most mornings,
the woman added,
and it does
the same thing – just trots along
and sniffs like a dog
on its daily rounds.

I thought of my usual mental image:
el coyote picking its cautious way
amid deserty spines and stones,
nosing with the care
and learned reflexes
the desert imposes on creatures.

Meanwhile el coyote pounced upon
something in the lush grass
alongside a dense shrub thicket
and in a quick flash of jaws and teeth
dispatched and ate whatever
Nature provided for breakfast.

© Glen Sorestad
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan