“Beyond the Tension”
Wendy Balconi
Collage
After hearing news of a rare attack,
we hiked hours past our turnaround point,
then led each other home above the river
by starlight. Between night and dawn
we felt it follow, mountain lion keeping
to trees, paws four inches wide, claws
retracted in a stride of powerful restraint.
My neighbor lost three goats to a cougar
living in a lair across the river. A peacock escaped
in the melee, flying low over the fence to strut
the road like a town crier, screaming its one word
all morning. They say she was running on a trail,
flashing in the wild like a deer, river stone
below her white as bone. I want to think of water
flowing from snow melt translucent green.
I want to think until it ended she heard
birdsong smooth as the silk of her heart.
they swooshed open and Coyote registered
What world is this? When people yelled,
it charged down the hall
flinging toward air and shattering glass.
As had to happen, someone called someone,
and a man came with stun gun and leather,
the wild dog stitched up and released.
All week, letters to the editor, pro and con.
Coyote said You can keep your world.