Tony Whedon
poet, essayist, and musician; leader of poetry/jazz ensemble PoJazz and the Border Band; author of five collections of poetry and one collection of essays; his work has appeared in Alaska Review, American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crazy Horse, Cream City Review, Harper’s Magazine, Midwest Quarterly, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Salmagundi, Shenandoah, West Branch, and more
Listening to Coyotes at Dusk
A critter opens his yeller mouth and croons and his companions chime in, one yip and then a yowl, then the drawn out lunacy of the hunt down in the ravine below our house. Good Jesus,
give us the sense not to run after them in our folly,
give us the stamina to say-low and musical, each lazy note trailing the other like hillbilly voices on the radio.
Moon gone down and already a sprinkling of stars giving way to an army of stars. The world is a great demon wheel, and the howls and yaps
in the night are the teeth of that wheel. If you stand here long enough you'll learn to hear where one howl ends and another rises up saying I'm hungry, too.
from The Hatcheck Girl by Tony Whedon (Green Writers Press)