Ankyra Sound in memory of sniffy cole

what if this was all
just the universe's idea
of some huge joke
a trickster coyote
puling the strings
of a sappy and foolhardy dog?
he waits for a shape to appear
in that yawning chasm
that the girl called a grotto.
waiting
in disbelief
until a shape breaks the blackness
the amazonian
her lamplight eyes glinting
two sulfurous crescent moons
suspended over a black sea.

he almost dives for the rabbit
his stomach bucks as she withholds it
a seal, she says
bones.
easy
like taking candy from a baby
only
he's not so sure
this baby doesn't pack fangs.

he glances around them.
just the moon and the stars,
and the soft sigh of the impatient sea.
i can do that.
he promises,
eyes longingly on that delicate haunch.