Edited and introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine poet laureate.

In this week’s poem Leslie Moore, a poet and artist from Brooksville, considers the Maine coyotes who live, barely detectable, among us.

Coyotes

By Leslie Moore

They hug the margins of fields,

slip into creases between trees,

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glide across gravel roads at dawn or dusk,

bellies close to the ground, tails

trailing. We hardly know they are here, think

all of this is ours – the property, the shorefront,

the view – until moonless nights

when a choir of coyotes sings to the stars

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and one paces the length of our driveway

leaving tracks in the snow and scat

where the dog and I are sure to find it.

Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2013 Leslie Moore. Poem copyright @ 2013 Leslie Moore. Reprinted from “Coyote Lives in Maine,” Geri Vistein, by permission of Leslie Moore.


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