Coyote

for Kell, circa 1995

a man tries
to stand up straight

stupid man…genius

stripped, whittled
….to dust it’s true
that we lose
….the hands we once had
the faces we’ve worn, the hearts
….we tried out

and yet we remain, proud
……….fools
those who believe in people
…….before poems, others
….in a legend made
entirely of words

but the world will be different
….because we have lived

in the final light
…….of the longest day, the bleached
bones of these vain things

a bag of poems bought
with our own honest sweat
…..and a string of crushed hearts
no one could lift up

Mitch Rayes