I was shy at first, timid in my dealings,
I laced the trap against my throat,
sang sparing, tip-toed
around your poems.

The tone, the slow vibrating
from the shoots of my shoulders
to the gleam of polished talons,
it purred around inside me.

Oh the song, Coyote,
the same resigned call, it
paled before you, swallowed down its insides,
wept.

I took your little hand in my big hand,
flew out towards Crow, and for a while
My Love, there were poems
and the world was enough.

I took to howling with you,
down from the branches, safe
womb of the tree, I spread
dirt between my toes, sang happy,

sang the song of free,
your wild howl, your musk,
I lost the language for
the pain of bird calling.

Do you remember when we realized
Crow would no longer sing
her crooning songs beside us, trill
through a night among us?

She had gone, no longer writing
poems for coyotes or exlovers,
no longer touching out for a girl
beyond the mountain,

and we were suddenly alone, Love,
you and I, alone to sing, to warble, to fall,
but, nevermore, you said, nevermore,
things matter not

when I love you, the howl-
I sang with you the howl of leaving,
never leaving, loving, always loving
the bitter sweet notes,

I’ll never quiet for you.

Originally published at vox poetica.  “I Took to Howling with You” is the second part of a three-part poem.