Monthly Archives: July 2022

COYOTE TREE

 

Along the road the CCCs

chiseled in the 30s, men and mules,

wheelbarrows and Fresno scrapers,

miles of sidehill on perfect grade

while the old oak watched

from the saddle

before the place got a name.

 

Coyotes trapped or shot

were tied with baling wire and hung

from a long, horizontal limb

through summer heat and rain

before becoming skeletons.

How many bones beneath it now

howl from its hollow limbs?