If I'm concerned to avoid opposites, I'll only end up avoiding life itself.

by Lin Jensen, Tricycle blog entry
      July 22, 2006    Hot and Cold

Coyoté saw Owl's expression
as he read the magazine.
He waited for the volcanic eruption.

Owl sputtered, speechless.
He looked up
and saw Coyoté
and went into interjecting jibberish.

Coyoté waited.

Owl calmed in time.
He began to articulate.
"'When cold and heat come,
how can we avoid them?'
That's a legitimate question!
We worry about Global Warming!
And we can't ask a question about heat
and cold?!?"

Coyoté found a rock in the shade and sat down.

"Well?!?" Owl asked.
Coyoté just said, "Come over here.
Sit."
Owl sat.

Coyoté pointed at the dust devils across the valley.
Owl watched them.

Coyoté looked up at the monsoon clouds building.
Owl watched them.

Coyoté asked, "What was the question?"
Owl sat silent,
watching the desert day.

"Ah!
Life!" he thought.

Coyoté found himself calculating
when to migrate north.
And how to reduce his contribution
to the heat.

Meanwhile,
dust devils in the distance,
and monsoon clouds,
and friendship.