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tree meditations and others 247
And sleep it off . How
A big, bushy-tailed
Ruddy coyote paused
On a stony spur
And watched me a moment
As I drove toward him
On the road out; how,
Truth to say, the sight
On my return, of wife
And sons distressed me
-- I distressed myself
Among them, come back down
As I was, unfi t
For human converse,
Drunk with the dry, bright
Liquor of the day.
sounds
At my desk, the house still;
Somebody's dog barks again
And again, steadily
Through the late night silences;
I step outdoors; a full moon,
And the pour of its brilliance
Catches me full on when I emerge
From the black shadow of the house
Into the pallor among the boulders and bushes.
Huge, scentless, the moon
Has changed things. That dog
Does what he can about it,
Off in the dark of the grove
Barking on, in the dim torment
Of his poor eyesight and blurry brain.