the coyote doesn’t say much, the coyote’s pretty distant

he’s got this way of walking

the coyote sees other coyotes sometimes

and they know it by a certain type of wide-eyedness

when they run into each other at the grocery.

people scratch their heads about the coyote

and nobody’s got a read on him

they wonder if he’s secretly a woman

or maybe he’s the one killing cats, or both

and where he goes when it’s rainy.