Category: Poetry

• We are Coyotes, Brother

  All the world wants for water—
  men from rivers and 
  tree roots from earth’s wells
  
  all the world wants for water—
  but we are coyotes, brother
  nourished by the salt in the desert
  
  nourished by the prickly pears
  and watering holes that vanish under
  the sunbeam’s thieving arms
  
  we are coyotes, brother
  fighting scorpions and chasing hares until
  our paws bled on the jagged rocks known as home
  
  all the world wants for water, brother—
  and though thirsty, we tell stories to the antelopes
  about our lands, and our rivers, and our mothers, and our losses
  
  and when the stories vanish, with the thieving sun, with the rivers
  we race back along the canyon edge, along the dried riverbeds
  to the mountains, to our birthright
  
  there we dance under the moonlit, star-painted, big sky 
  and collapse with the desert’s sweet exhaustion
  knowing that all the world wants for water—
  
  and we are coyotes.

  March 20, 2025

  Desert, Nature, Poetry

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