Bitch

[Tinker]

Bitch

By no means scrawny
and clearly nursing,
a coyote greeted me on the road
this morning.
Pups probably placed
in safe haven,
she seemed unafraid but confused
as I passed her.
Natural stalker by night
it was strange
to see her pacing the pavement
in the daylight,
what was she thinking?
                    ~~ Judi Van Gorder

[tonyv]

Tinker, nocturnal animals out during the day is usually cause for concern, a sign of rabies. I saw a racoon in the nighborhood I grew up in wandering around, all weird, at noon. It was clearly sick. I'm glad you avoided a confrontation!

 

Tony

[Tinker]

Hi Tony, This was a large coyote, I wouldn't have confronted her ever, unless something I cared about was threatened. I was in my car. She did look confused but not sick and the rabies thing did cross my mind but I saw no indication of it. We do sometimes see coyotes a little after sun up or just before dawn but this was 8 am and the sun had been up awhile. .My friend saw one the other day, early evening. It was darting across the road with either a cat or rabbit in its mouth. Something flushed this one from her den I think. I really wanted to take a picture but my iphone was in my purse, I was driving and I knew if I stopped she would have disappeared before I could get it out.. .

Anyway, I haven't written anything in a while and the encounter, brief as it was, prompted me to give it a try.

Thanks for reading. ~~Tink




.

[fdelano]

Animal behavior is a clear signal of abnormality. On one of my country road walks, a raccoon came stalking straight at me. I finally scared it off by banging my walking stick on the pavement, but clearly, the animal was infected and abnormal. Now snakes, to me, are always abnormal, and all will bite if provoked, regardless of venom. A stag deer attacked our car. Other animals are almost as crazy as humans.

[dr_con]

A nice return Tink! A solid naturalist piece, invoking the appropriate response from everyone: what was she thinking?

 

;-)

 

Actually, it occurs to me, maybe get nannies were not safe... hence the daytime search and confusion?

 

Juris

[Benjamin]

Nicely worked piece and a contrast from our own nocturnal, increasingly bolder scavenging urban foxes. G.

[dcmarti1]

I am one who thinks animals DO have greater mental and emotional capacities than they get assigned, but I liked the subtle personification (?) in the verbs greeting, pacing (purposeful perhaps?), and thinking. Clear, quick imagery.

[David W. Parsley]

Hi Tink, perfect intersection of imagism and "personal poetry." It possesses such a clean economy of movement and expression - could I suggest eliminating the "by" in line 8?

 

I had a coyote race me down the back side of Turnbull Canyon Road on the way to work one morning. The expression bespoke alertness and focus, his body a perfect bounding machine. He was clearly doing it for fun, a motive which many animal psychologists still deny to be within non-human capacity. It was early, but daylight. I don't think he was sick. Ten years old or more, the experience is still percolating into a poem for me.

 

Thanks,

- Dave