COYOTES
Coyotes wake when we lie down upon the verge of sleep enclosed,
intent upon pursuits that take them through the night, always nearby,
the clamour of their sudden laughter rising up beside us. Sleep
does not begin, it enters our bodies unperceived, and then
it is all that we are, a world sleeping in us, desiring nothing
but the sleep we are, the world's only residue within
our flesh the echo of the coyotes and their waking joy where they
are in their midnights, stars rolling through them, stars ablaze upon
their tongues. No other stars rise up inside our nights: we are the sky
within a sun, yet sky that has no sphere of final stars where in
our sleep we might conclude, our prayers hushed against the air, their words
invisible around our bodies. Coyotes lope beneath the sky
at night, its silence on their backs, the quickened folly of their calling
opening the sky, and where it opens we are open, flesh
forgotten with our prayers, the air around the stars flowing through
the sleep we are, so close we are their intimates, breathing fire.
Coyotes wake when we lie down upon the verge of sleep enclosed,
intent upon pursuits that take them through the night, always nearby,
the clamour of their sudden laughter rising up beside us. Sleep
does not begin, it enters our bodies unperceived, and then
it is all that we are, a world sleeping in us, desiring nothing
but the sleep we are, the world's only residue within
our flesh the echo of the coyotes and their waking joy where they
are in their midnights, stars rolling through them, stars ablaze upon
their tongues. No other stars rise up inside our nights: we are the sky
within a sun, yet sky that has no sphere of final stars where in
our sleep we might conclude, our prayers hushed against the air, their words
invisible around our bodies. Coyotes lope beneath the sky
at night, its silence on their backs, the quickened folly of their calling
opening the sky, and where it opens we are open, flesh
forgotten with our prayers, the air around the stars flowing through
the sleep we are, so close we are their intimates, breathing fire.