Blocks from here
In the shadow of skyscrapers across the river
Men working on a building nearby
Spotted the dog on the roof of the bar
And at first calling to it, like you would a dog
Here Rover, here Rover, here Rover
When one of the men snapped a photo
That he put on Instagram, where
The science man looked amazed and
Said, you, sir, have a coyote there

So the hipsters walk their Yorkies every day
And let them gambol in the nearby dog run
And now they tug on leashes made of steel
And point to the bar, and wonder if the predator
Will leap to the sidewalk and devour their
Young and purebred progeny.

And they whisper, isn’t it strange,
That in the biggest city in the tamest
Country on God’s green earth, a coyote
Lurks in the eaves of an empty building
And suns himself on the roof of a bar

And the PETA people come out every day
Spitting advice and sympathy and swearing
That the police can only use nets and poles
To snatch the beast away. And all the while,
They marvel at the advent of this freak
Of nature, and cheer there’s deer
In the Bronx and raccoons in Queens
And possum in the attics of Brooklyn tenements.

And what wild animals live on Manhattan Island
They will not say.

Will there soon be wolves, they wonder
Will eagles spawn in the shadow of
The Empire State and hawks prey on
Canaries from the eaves of the
Chrysler Building? Will the cats
That seek the rats in subway tunnels
Now become pumas and cheetahs
And mountain lions? Did Sandy’s ill-wind,
Now three years a memory, bring spawn-seed
Of the kind that will splay the landscape with
Fauna of the damned?

There are those with their well-thumbed
Copies of Revelations who swear the end-days
Are upon us, and they look to the skies
For locust clouds. Nonsense, say the
Rest. It is only Nature reclaiming what she
Leant to man, not ceded him. The planet will
Be here long after the last candle of humanity
Has flamed itself to extinguishment.

And when that flame has died, they tell you,
Never fear:
The frogs and the honeybees
Will make their glorious return.

04/22/2015

Author's Note: A true story. The bar is only blocks from here and the wily coyote ( no pun intended) lurks in an abandoned building next door. And how timely, no, it coincidentally being Earth Day, after all..:)

Posted on 04/22/2015
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