Jesus and Coyote

Long ago, when I used to read a lot of poetry, I came across a compendium by a poet named Barry Gifford entitled, "Ghosts No Horse Can Carry."  In that book he had a section of poems devoted to the Native trickster character, Coyote.  One poem featured Jesus along with Coyote and I thought, "What a great idea!"  But I was disappointed by the poem.  So, in the ignorant, time-honored tradition of writers down thru the ages, I thought, "I can do better than that."  

One night when I was really tired and about to turn in, this poem showed up.  In fact, it came down the pipes so fast I could barely get one line written before the next line came rolling through.  I scribbled it down in probably 2-3 minutes flat.  Then I had to go back and re-read it because I had absolutely no idea what it said.  To my surprise, the poem read back v-e-r-y  s-l-0-w-l-y.

The first line of Barry Gifford's poem had inspired my version.  Try as I may, I couldn't seem to improve upon it so decided to keep it as it was.  Reading local poetry journals in Seattle (there was a long-standing journal called "Poetry Northwest"), I would occasionally see a poem with the title, "Poem with a first line by..." so I gathered that it was okay to be inspired by another poet's line as long as you made the attribution in the title.  Hence, this is a "Poem With A First Line by Barry Gifford."

Jesus found Coyote

clinging by his nails

to a precipice.

Fetched him up

in one strong motion.

Fed him milk

by the campfire.

Looked

the other way

when Coyote stole

the best rabbit

steak.

Judas complained,

"You always do that!

 Why'd you save

 that mangy dog?

 There's already no

 end of trouble

 in this world."

"Lucifer's lonely,"

Jesus replied.

Judas

dropped his jaw

lurched up

said, "I'm

outta here!"

Bolted into

the black.

Coyote

chewed rabbit fat

and thought,

"It's no fault

 of the sun

that it casts

so many

shadows"