A Division of
Red Gravenstein Arts

Coyote Snuffle

Fourteen poems explore life in the Santa Cruz Mountains, marriage and tools. Foxes, skunks, newts, black-capped chickadees and coyotes take the stage amidst in a landscape a world away from the bustling Silicon Valley that lies only a short distance away.

By Geoffrey Skinner.
Illustrated by Joan Schwan
Paper, 43 pages, b&w illustrations. 2000.

From "Seventeen Visits to Los Trancos"

While sleeping down the ridge
my last night
before moving to town,
I dream a coyote
snuffles about my head.
So real, I startle awake.
My cat's gone mad-
she's streaking toward the forest.

Feral pigs?
Mountain lion?
On the grassy rise,
canine silhouette against
starry sky.

When I sleep again,
I take on coyote form,
hunt voles in the meadow,
then slink into underbrush
at daybreak.

My cat reappears
as I pack my bags.
She won't come close
until she's sure
my whiskers are gone.

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