Coyote

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2> COYOTE </h2> <p> Blown out of the prairie in twilight and dew,<br/> Half bold and half timid, yet lazy all through;<br/> Loath ever to leave, and yet fearful to stay,<br/> He limps in the clearing, an outcast in gray.<br/> <br/> A shade on the stubble, a ghost by the wall,<br/> Now leaping, now limping, now risking a fall,<br/> Lop-eared and large-jointed, but ever alway<br/> A thoroughly vagabond outcast in gray.<br/> <br/> Here, Carlo, old fellow,&mdash;he's one of your kind,&mdash;<br/> Go, seek him, and bring him in out of the wind.<br/> What! snarling, my Carlo! So even dogs may<br/> Deny their own kin in the outcast in gray.<br/> <br/> Well, take what you will,&mdash;though it be on the sly,<br/> Marauding or begging,&mdash;I shall not ask why,<br/> But will call it a dole, just to help on his way<br/> A four-footed friar in orders of gray!<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />