Coyote at bat

 

“Look out, Coyote, rancher is on the warpath,” Bat whispered,

“seems he lost another cow when he came back after lunch.”

“Yea, I know,” Coyote smirked, “he was out to lunch for six

months, one of the bovines tripped and landed on its head.

I had a small meal from him since he was dead, and hunting

wasn’t that good. I may have left a footprint or tooth.”

“He’s going to leave a poisoned cow carcass for you.”

“Thanks, I learned better than Wolf.”

“But, Wolf didn’t eat—”

“I Coyote triumphed due to excess and challenge.

Let Coyote eat the cattle and their cattle will become healthy.

Let him eat sheep and the sheep will benefit and thrive.

Rancher is stupid, unsuccessful. Coyote persists, prospers

and expands—”

“Which Coyote?”

“I was just speaking

in the third-person, me, Coyote continues to live in the dreams

of his admirers as the primordial teacher—”

“Who continues?”

“Never mind,” Coyote sighed, “say, could you teach me

to hunt in the dark so no one could see me?”

“Sure,” whispered Bat, “it’s easy.

Here’s the secret, as you run just make noise, a lot of noise,

and where the noise returns back to your ears, go

in that direction only. If you listen, you should be able

to hear the breathing of your prey. We’ll try it tonight.”

 

Later, that night, Coyote said, “Can you see the deer?”

“No, but I can hear it’s echo.”

“Whatever,” Coyote sighed,

“can you point me and I’ll start?”

Bat turned Coyote’s head

and said, “Start running now! Straight ahead!”

And Coyote barked up a storm as he ran through the night.

Unfortunately, the deer was less dense than the saguaro

and Coyote brought down the cactus. He lay unmoving

and spoke to himself, “I am pierced. My head is split.”