One Time

| 91 One Time travis mossotti —Wildlife Rescue Center, Castlewood, Missouri A man caught a coyote in a leg snare, shot it, went to poke a finger where the bullet broke through and saw five pups, eyes not yet open, mother dead. This is not a fable and the man was not made clean when he brought them into the center because I’m not God. I’m just the truck he drove up in, the shot transmission with no reverse, rust dripping from the whole of its junked body. I’m his wife parked at home who wishes he had just been man enough to drown, just had balls enough to take the hose and drown the coyote pups in a trash can. I’m the cold water hitting tin, rising, so eager to make things whole. ...