Coyote Takes a Name

Harrison Candelaria Fletcher

below the combination lock. of schoolyard taunting. where it fell as he ducked. exploding in laughter. epithet shards. misplaced anger. mixed-race slur. shapeshifting target. evading again. behind a mask.

tight as skin.

*

with multiple truths. of multiple lies. with multiple drafts. of multiple tries. with multiple versions. of similar themes. with similar layers. of similar epiphanies. all leading to. a singular place. two-way mirror.

hidden face—

*

beside a pool. chlorine sting. high-desert blue. fully clothed. others half-bare. afraid to appear. without their color. despite the urging. of his sun-browned friends. he could not reveal. his bleach-stain of

shame.

*

disrespecting his father. this he knows. which makes it harder. carrying his name. sharing his blood. but not much else. that family dead. hungry ghosts. pale as pages. divided by lines. absent

spaces.

*

summoning the trickster. playing his game. coy. clever. scrawling paw prints. along school walls. strategic prank. leaving his mark. standing on desk. reaching the ceiling. falling on his face. hear him

howling.

*

making his siblings laugh. shake their heads. turn to ask. how is he mixed? when they share his genes. yet do not try. to be more than they seem. why not admit. beneath this story. selective omission.

selective distortion.

*

which allows him to see. through cracks of composure. uncertain identity. unreconciled heritage. unclaimed inheritance. muddied lineage. once examined. once expressed. this voice inside. cannot

rest.

*

coyote takes a name. with multiple meanings. from trickster to fool. courier to thief. deity to devil. trinket to screen. a roadrunner blurs. syllables shear off a cliff. outline scorched. dust in his

grip. 

*

invoking suffering. drug couriers. human smugglers. betrayal. death. crossing borders. laborers. families. blood dollars. a connotation he cannot dismiss. by assuming this shape. he acknowledges the

sin—

*

he feels the sting of using. those who cast it. aimed with precision. making it stick. making it go deep. making it lodge. a cholla spine. beading red. embedded in place. whenever he tries. to pull it

away.

*

he thought he had lost. thought he had buried. thought he had boxed. thought he had written. thought he had ended. thought he had left. a distant horizon. only to see. upon this ground. his stray persona.

following behind.

*

he has to reset. the typewriter carriage. ding at the end. jolting strike. margin line. blunt reminder. begin again. gather words. mismatched meanings. falling from his mouth. splintered

speech.

*

from another tongue. from another culture. from another land. from another time. from another purpose. from another rhyme. from another story. from another meaning. from another archive. from

another stealing.

*

making him cringe. at others’ expressions. when trying to explain. this confusing endeavor. to reveal himself. in another creature. and an age-old myth. when it all might be. simple grief. for a younger self.

unheard. unseen.

*

I take the name. shoulder debt. embrace strange. beyond slur. beyond shame. invoking the human. in animal eyes. flickering mythic. primal fire. white skin. brown blood. ancestral palette. knife. brush.

remix. rebalance.

Image © Europeana

---

Harrison Candelaria Fletcher is the author of Descanso for My Father, Presentimiento, and Finding Querencia. His work has appeared widely in such venues as New Letters, TriQuarterly, Puerto del Sol, and Cimarron Review, and has been cited in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays. A National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Wurlitzer, and Vermont Studio Center fellow, he teaches in the MFA programs at Colorado State University and Vermont College of Fine Arts.