A Tiger A Coyote
I felt comfort to see the horizon alight with the dawn. Upon entering the seating area at Starbucks, I felt the red of the Christmas-holiday promotion posters behind the beverage prep. counter. Paper cups with the colorful holiday graphic were stacked ready for use. Thus, I am reminded that life has a relentless heartbeat unaffected even when a craven tyrant ascends to power. Again I find heart to continue to live, no matter what.
At dusk I walked by a wetland, and there within shouting distance was a mottled grey coyote. This was not the usual scrawny lean canine as coyotes often are. It proceeded to lope along the edge of the marsh. The animal’s gaze never left me. I felt a kinship, animal to animal with the medium sized grey coyote. The wild, upsurge of life is obvious in the demeanor of such a carnivore.
I want to be untamed, to be significant, even by the edge of a retention-pond wetland. That would be stage enough.
I resist entanglement in a miasma of punditry, paralysis of my spirit, anguish predictably arriving again at sunset. I resist being tamed.
A tiger tamed is as insignificant
as the people who are taking the escalator of this building.
Anguish sunk in red wine reappears at sunset.
Night by Etel Adnan, p. 34
