Coyote
is a Yurok man
who lives in a
Mormon mansion
high on a hill
in McKinleyville.
He's a storyteller,
that one.
Tells tall tales
of perfect worlds
and hard places
from behind dark eyes.
Stories fall
from his teeth
created from his mind,
he hides in this fortress
hides behind the stories.
And the stories don't
always have endings.
Behind white pillars
high on a hill
away from
prying eyes
and
praying hands,
he looks through eyes that
face the sky
and musters courage
and protects himself
in a den
of hothouse chickens.
He comes out
once in awhile,
sniffs the air
for other food.
Once I caught him
in my yard.
He followed me inside,
sniffing,
prancing
until he smiled
his most beautiful smile.
All right,
Trickster,
I said.
I invited you in,
but that don't mean
I invited you
inside.
Here,
where my heart
is a hard, uncracked crimson stone
and dark, sweet thick red
that no light
can shine through.
A smile,
You won't crack
that stone,
Coyote,
because I won't let you.
Rocks being dropped
from high places
don't always crack
or even break.
I don't know what
the red stone means anymore,
or why it's a stone,
but I do know
that you think
you know
the rest
of the story.
About the Author: Carolyn Dunn is an American Indian writer and academic whose poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her poetry has been collected in Outfoxing Coyote and Hidden Creek Journal; she is the editor of two anthologies: Hohzo — Walking in Beauty (with Paula Gunn Allen) and Through the Eye of the Deer (with Carol Comfort); and she is the author of a children's book, Coyote Speaks (with Ari Berk). Currently, she is a James Irvine Foundation Fellow at the Center for American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, where she is pursuing a doctorate. Dunn is also a member of the all–women Native drum group The Mankillers.
Copyright © 2002 by Carolyn Dunn. The poem may not be reproduced in any form without the author's express written permission.