This’ll do
by morning the clouds were riding the mountains
just as bright without a sun
last night
the moon shone onto me
while I slept and in my dreams

Today we approached the goosebumps
put there by a frost upon your skin
I said ready, set,
and your paws broke the new, wet ground
following your nose atop each one
you growled
and I growled back

Along with many other things
I found a rock,
a leaf,
a bottle cap,
a feather, tweet
and a snail
I dared not take his shell
for his journey was not half finished

Together we walked to that blue car
letting just our feet take us there for once
I met someone
said, ‘was just adventuring’
I knew he wouldn’t tell a soul
as he receded into the creek bed

So we kept walking
for what else is there to do
and I looked
for what I could be missing
when I saw it
rusted from the recurrent rain
I asked you to show me where
and you gave me a compass
I had no pockets
but that’s quite all right

Then a car passed by
so I ducked into a pit
thinking among the broken glass
treasures that might have been
we ran up the road after you
the needle pointing west
stopping to pick up another rock
in the river beside the road

This is real,
  right
so many 
stories
I’m learning to tell
  one thing
I cannot
replace

Now that we’re back
no time has passed
but I can hear a barking
an engine booting up

There was a roly-poly graveyard
and I thought of the girl next door

Today I saw a coyote
trotting the hills of his domain
he looked at me
and with the wings of a hawk
he took his brown-gray coat
and ran with the all-too-beautiful
colors of the season

I will follow you

A bird circled overhead
with the tiger-tipped tail of a wolf
shouted at the world
and then he was gone

You rest your head onto my knee
as a bunny dips behind a tree
and the chase is on
I call to mom
‘a coyote has been here’
but the next is just for me

With a soft touch

two ladybugs land nearby
16 spots in all
one flies off
and the other decides to stay
the presents of your arrival

This’ll do