Coyote Moon Poem by Chuck Toll

Some experts claim that coyotes do not yelp
At the moon. Instead, they use yips to help
Find partners or assert which land is theirs
Before they leave to hunt singly or in pairs.
But their nightly chorus could also express
A welcome pause in living’s harsh caress,
Much as we find comfort joining in communion
And in responsive readings. Does the moon
Enrapture with its display of shapes and shadows,
Mysteriously pungent smells and furtive sounds,
And other half-sensed clues of creatures fleeing?
How life is built on death this moonscape shows
And leads coyotes, through their febrile songs,
To embrace the night, embrace their being.