Coyote Madonna
(for Betty Castillo)

Wandering
At night
Under stars
And a moon
Of time in
Distant skies
And stars of life.
At night
She whispers
A prayer
And the world
Falls silent.
Light dots
the landscape
reflecting stars
off the black
ocean sky
and her voice
pares away
at the noise
like the knife
at her belt.
Her eyes
Stars
And blessing,
once the quiet
stills,
she moves
across hills
across sage
chapparal
and wild alata
singing a
song
that keeps sleep
at the place
behind our eyes.
The quiet
Keeps us down
but for her
the silence is
music, a
song of
heart
and memory
like stars
that shine
her way
light across a
desert plain.
Lifting her
ears, they move
forward, back
close to her head.
She sniffs the
Ground
and on wings
of sand and glass
takes flight
toward the cry
of someone’s child
upon the wind.
Bring them home,
distant stars
lit on your
path
and wisdom
of the ancestors
her paws stretch
like wings
to carry them home.
Each finds a
home close to her heart.

The color
of the sky
before sunrise
and moonset
summons the
silence
home.
The sounds
of city breath
and brokenness
that brings
us back from our dreams.
From her mouth
come our voices
waking, rising,
they drift over
hills and wild alata,
tobacco,
sagebrush, chapparal
and remnants of
real and
imaginary places.
Taking the loss
within her wings
she flies home,
rooting the lost ones
to her breasts.
Flying unladen now.
they move across
the shining sky
the in-betweens
and the lost ones
have found their home
As the sun rises,
giving voice back
to the ones
who have none.  

Los Angeles, October 2003
© Carolyn Dunn, 2003