Coyote Moon

The sultry summer midnight hour came and went as the full moon's illumination magnified the sun scorched fields of forevermore...a Coyote Moon chapter by Harlon Rivers

The sultry summer midnight hour

came and went as the full moon's illumination 
magnified the sun scorched fields of forevermore.

The air was so thick,

through the waist high brambles,

that you could cut it with the Kaiser Blade.

It's a burdensome task to carry that weight,

but the ancient tool was adorned 

with an old Tatanka leather shoulder sling.

It was willingly carried, by the native warrior, to defend the passage

against the prickles of the barbed cane’s shield.

This place where subsistence and survival are plucked

from the thorny sweetbriars of humble existence.

The shadowed, exiled silhouette staggered

into the edge of the vast amber wheat field.

A cloud of unsettled dust rose like a twisting dirt devil, 
in the wake of fluid movement,

as the traces of foot steps quietly crackled in the dry grass.
Coyote was going there...

The woven willow satchel overflowed with a fragrant sweetness 

The damp Bota bag moistened 
the wanderer's parched gritty cotton mouth,

coughing as the powdery earth moved the stagnant air

barely stirring, ever so slightly from the startling motion.

The figure’s unaccompanied shadow stumbled

stopping to rest on the lone flat rock

enlightened by the glimmering moon light.

All of the panorama’s inhabitants

hushed their free spirited chatter. 
Immediately sensing healing energy,

becoming undetectable, soundless listeners.

Instantly silenced by the sound vibration

of the intruders clumsy movement.

Moments passed in stillness

as a shooting star’s tailing, fading shimmer, flickered

like that final moment when the boisterous crack

of the last thunder clap's clamor  
decays into total eerie dark silence.

The only audible sound

was that of dusty lungs rattling and wheezing

as if death were near,

and yet it was only a mind made, 
self-conscious audio illusion.

The exhausted intruder labored

to breathe the hazy night air 

in the humid, sweaty stillness.

The beat of his unraveling heart

thundered in his chest without fear.

Eyes of a soul were mesmerized

by a halo around the moon

evolving from the radiant

swirling moon dust of a solar tempest.

Constellations glowing effervescence

illuminated the silhouette within the shadows.

Firefly's transcend, disappearing into a starlit oasis 

The aura of the spirit of the Coyote Moon

had symbolic crescent shaped ears,

able to hear and comprehend every ethereal 
wordless sigh breathed.

Inaudible thoughts and sounds 
echoed mystically in silent dreams.

The essence of every exhaled breath

of emotional release, coherently revealed

a wholehearted awakening life, 
in route to vivid understanding. 

Taking ownership of choices 
made on life's journey’s path followed 

brought relief from sufferance 
in search of peaceful solitude. 
The defining instance lingered

in a final moment of merciful surrender. 

No longer fighting unnatural forces,
emotions were absolved into the universe.
All purpose is awakening into the present moment.
Set free like dust dissipated by the wind

The reality of the cost of the toll paid

by a lost and forgotten soul, 
enduring man made stigmas, 
rooted delusions of missing earthly time served. 

Never surrendering to self fulfilled prophecy, 
the release of poignant emotional energy 
into the sultry surreal air, heightened awareness.

The ethereal energy brought the dramatic howling Coyote to his feet! 
Breaking silence... celebrating his nocturnal freedom 
with the man in the moon...
The sounds of silence came alive...
Yip yip Awoooh...

© 2012 Harlon Rivers