A quiet night
here on the edge of town
no breath of air
no cars along our road
the stillness seems uncanny
and I half expect
to hear coyotes
such as used to sing
on nights like this
outside our country home
filling the silence
with their banshee wail
I'd lie in bed and listen
and be glad
that something of the wild
had come so close
here in town we have
the neighbor's children
splashing eachother
in their backyard pool
their laughter spilling over
through the fence
delighting us old timers
but on summer nights
like this I miss the chorus
of the frogs and crickets
so loud sometimes we'd close
the bedroom window
and the coyotes
whose night wailing
was a message
from another world
a message that
gave meaning to our own