The winter riv-
er is a white page
and Coyote has
made a kill out
on the ice. See
the violent slash
of red that inks
the young doe‘s 
final progress.
Watch Coyote’s
haunches strain
and flex and fur-
row as he tears
viscera from it’s
skeletal housing,
looking from here
like our old, kind
lab did when tug-
ging on a chew toy.
I had an English
teacher once,
‘Punctuation is
everything,’ she said.  

The blood smear
of gore the exc-
lamation.The
quarry the mark.