If there is not another life,
there is at least another way to live.

by Theodore Roethke
"The Plain Speech of a Crow"
in Straw for the Fire

I

Coyoté was having coffee while waiting for his breakfast, when he heard -
"We must begin where beginning is conceivable."¹
He turned his head toward the table to his left
and saw Roadrunner talking to Owl.
"Roadrunner said that? Why..." he thought,
"that wasn't... well, normal."

Then Owl replied to Roadrunner, "well, I'm not sure how to interpret that
but  I know there is another way to live."
Owl blinked twice as he watched Roadrunner
turn to his cereal... then look up.

"What life to we have then?" Roadrunner asked.
He returned to his cereal, savoring each portion as he ate it.

Coyoté felt faint, needed to find a more solid seat.
"If there is not another life, then... well, what?" Roadrunner puzzled out.
Owl sat quiet a moment, noticed Coyoté sitting there perplexed. Owl said,
"One's real life is often the life that one does not lead."²

And he returned to his bowl of stew.
Coyoté sat there perplexed.
Wondering about "...the life that one does not lead."
Wondering about what other way to live.

His meal arrives.
It grows cold
as he ponders
plain
words
shifting the world.
How can one's real life not....