a coyote, sent

I step out

onto the deck

this early

february morning

to clear my

thoughts

and leave go

the heaviness

that presses close

perhaps if i 

put it into a prayer

it will float away 

into the cold blue sky

but before i have time 

to utter a word

he is there

barely visible 

through the swaying 

pasture grass, golden

and somehow

his presence

takes hold of my

heart

and the heaviness

therein departs

as he disappears

to the waiting woods 

"Coyotes move within a landscape of attentiveness.  I have seen their eyes in the creosote bushes and among mesquite trees.  They have watched me.  And all the times that I saw no eyes, that I kept walking and never knew, there were still coyotes.  When I have seen them trot away, when I have stepped from the floorboard of my truck, leaned on the door, and watched them as they watched me over their shoulders, I have been aware for that moment of how much more there is.  Of how I have only seen an instant of a broad and rich life."

~Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

"Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear."  Is. 65:24