4.
Elke is all-over sad as the sun saunters its way across
the sky, cooking away the fog and leaving behind only
the pollution to cloud the blistering day.

Her loss is heavy on her soul and heavy on her limbs,
and today she cannot arise and wander the limits of
her land as she is prone to do. She will eat nothing,
set no traps for deer or bobcats, ignore the
withering mustard plants and manzanitas.

The coyotes howl for her but it is a fake sympathy. They
have no doubts about their own hearts, which are surely
made of sinew and artifice and carrion. They knew the
mechanism of their making from the get-go, and it has
never been questioned since.

11/26/2013

Posted on 11/26/2013
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