Hello Poetry
Submit your work and get some sparkles! Create free account
JDPoems
As kids we played in fields miles and miles of of planned and planted crops that held within them hidden wilds At night I lay in bed terrified of the coyotes howling outside my window prowling fields and stalking through tall weeds sniffing out the mice and ground squirrels chasing cats and lurking hunting creatures of the night fearful creatures of the darkness One night, I woke to the howling I listened bravely, braver than before when I would hide under the blankets or call for my mom I peaked out of my curtains into the dark and there immediately were two yellow eyes staring back from the dark I saw the faint gray of fur saw its mass and presence but then it blinked and startled and instantly faded into the night. The next day in the mud just on the other side of the fence I found a paw print just one a mark that she had been there two eyes one paw At night, I heard the echoes and howls that sounded like a million imagined wolves, giant snarling beasts fighting and hunting hurling themselves against the fence fangs and blood and wildness At night when I took out the trash I ran like hell to the can and hurled the bag inside panting when I got back to the front door, in the light But that paw in the mud was so small so delicate Weeks later riding the bus to school I saw a coyote in the early morning fog thin and small rushing across the street and almost struck by the bus It ran into the orchard the bus driver cursed under her breath It was so fragile how could that be so frightful? Is fear this thing? This monster in the dark but in the day does it run from shadow to shadow malnourished with its tail between its leg? Can it be hit by a bus full of children? Does it lie in the ditch and slowly bleed to death after it misjudged the speed and distance and tried to make it a tuft of hair stuck in the corner of the bumper leaving nothing but a print in the mud a small print the only clue that it walked silently in the night?
0
Feb 24, 2019
Feb 24, 2019 at 7:22 PM UTC
Coyote
As kids we played in fields miles and miles of of planned and planted crops that held within them hidden wilds At night I lay in bed terrified of the coyotes howling outside my window prowling fields and stalking through tall weeds sniffing out the mice and ground squirrels chasing cats and lurking hunting creatures of the night fearful creatures of the darkness One night, I woke to the howling I listened bravely, braver than before when I would hide under the blankets or call for my mom I peaked out of my curtains into the dark and there immediately were two yellow eyes staring back from the dark I saw the faint gray of fur saw its mass and presence but then it blinked and startled and instantly faded into the night. The next day in the mud just on the other side of the fence I found a paw print just one a mark that she had been there two eyes one paw At night, I heard the echoes and howls that sounded like a million imagined wolves, giant snarling beasts fighting and hunting hurling themselves against the fence fangs and blood and wildness At night when I took out the trash I ran like hell to the can and hurled the bag inside panting when I got back to the front door, in the light But that paw in the mud was so small so delicate Weeks later riding the bus to school I saw a coyote in the early morning fog thin and small rushing across the street and almost struck by the bus It ran into the orchard the bus driver cursed under her breath It was so fragile how could that be so frightful? Is fear this thing? This monster in the dark but in the day does it run from shadow to shadow malnourished with its tail between its leg? Can it be hit by a bus full of children? Does it lie in the ditch and slowly bleed to death after it misjudged the speed and distance and tried to make it a tuft of hair stuck in the corner of the bumper leaving nothing but a print in the mud a small print the only clue that it walked silently in the night?
#fear#coyote#animal#nostalgia#childhood#night
Written by
JD
Feb 24, 2019
Feb 24, 2019 at 7:22 PM UTC
Request permission to use this poem