Sarah Sorensen
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Restless Coyote Pilfers the Night and She Does Not Need Your Judgment
A howl and a yip shiver the air. Tonight the moon, orange and black, is a coyote’s back rolled into
sleep. Coyote sees her mimic in the sky, a kind of god. She yips in a thousand voices, a gloating
illusion of abundance. There is sadness in the wolf when she howls, confesses to the moon that she’s
utterly without. Wolves don’t like to be alone, but a coyote can pilfer Detroit. A coyote doesn’t need
the woods, her mate, her own kill on her muzzle. She’ll just go on. The coyote fills her gut, feels the
good feeling of running her legs, and tells her memories to sit quietly back on their haunches. Haunted
is for dead and she’ll get there when she gets there. Rabbits taste so sweet, and so does she. She sends
out the yips and waits for the howl. Wolf, what did you leave her? She’ll clean the bones. Don’t ask her
to remember that once there was more.
The Improvisational Jazz of an Idle Life is a Heaven So Fine They Told You It’s Kept in the Devil’s Hand
Sometimes-I think- you have to rattle the rattlesnake. Take the threat and shake it, fearless as a baby.
Thrust the weight of your fat innocence on its throat. Have you been bitten? Bite back. Teethe your
wretched gums on the body-warmed body, scales shimmering like a mirage. If you hate your job, quit.
Even if it’s January. Smear your shit on the way out and crawl into the milk sour world. Make music
with the keratin clap-clap of the snapped tail. Your life too, seeps out day by day. Drool wickedly.
Quit. You’re going to need more space and you will need to demand it. Cackle! Look at your breath
caught in a huff between snowflakes. If nobody told you, a forked tongue can be ripped like a seam. Do
that. Unlike your corporate mission statement, you are not a lie. You, my dear sweet baby, deserve the
rhythm of your days-dazzling, ripe, and warm as your own pulse, kicking out power. Pow-er. Pow-er.
Pow-er. Until the end.
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Sarah Sorensen (she/her), MA, MLIS is a queer writer based in the Metro Detroit area. Sarah's most recent work can be found in Allegheny and The Closed Eye Open. She daydreams about rescuing every shelter dog in Metro Detroit, but she just has one tiny fireball of barks. Her work is forthcoming from The Bryant Literary Review and Soundings East, so stay tuned!