Saturday, June 7, 2008

Coyotes and Crows


This morning before sunrise Annie Bones and I were in our little front yard when we heard the riotous sound of a murder of crows. They swooped from a nearby Cypress and while Annie went crazy I watched a thin brown coyote who came running down our street just ahead of the swarm of birds. It stopped once and looked back at Annie, then ran into a neighbor's field.
Seeing a coyote on this street in what is almost downtown Santa Cruz is a first for me.
In 2000 Irene and my son and I drove through the dirt roads in the desert near his house looking for the perfect place to scatter my sister's ashes. We followed a crow that swooped ahead of us until it landed on the highest spine of a Joshua tree.
We came around the corner, stopped and watched the crow who seemed to be calling to us. There at the base of the tree was a coyote, standing completely still for one moment, watching us watching it. It turned after a moment and headed into the brush.
This was the place. This Joshua tree came to be known as Beki's Tree.
This morning I feel as if my sister came by just to say hello.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think you are right. that is amazing.
wendyxo

AMGallegos said...

This is some heavy stuff!