For Loretta (or joan didion once wrote “a place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image” and now it’s up to a Coyote to understand what she meant).

deep in West Texas lives a Coyote that loves to roam the paths around the mountains with a cigarette in his mouth, eating everything and anything that will satisfy his hunger. in order to understand the Coyote’s hunger, one must know that he was raised not far from what he now calls his hometown, but far enough to not see any coyotes like him. this land where the Coyote first had a slight understanding of whom he is is mostly populated by dogs and wolves, dogs and wolves that certainly didn’t prepare nor care enough to raise someone that fit both descriptions without truly having a place among them. He was constantly reminded by his fellow dogs and wolves that he didn’t belong there, but would look down on him for trying to find a place that would accomodate his most basic needs, his Hunger.

after an uneventful but traumatic coming of age, the Coyote ran to West Texas as if a pack of wolves was chasing him but whenever he looked back, there was not a single soul behind him. once he reached his destination, the Coyote initially was initially faced with his own disappointment by thinking that he was now in a land of deers, squirrels, snakes, lizards, owls, hogs, pumas, wildcats, eagles and not a single Coyote could be found. whatever food was readily available was not that different than anything he could find before, but after looking hard enough he realized that it is in this part of West Texas that every animal is welcomed as long as they have a way of creating their own path. hesitant to the idea of hunting for your own sake, the Coyote’s hunger reached the point of no return. he certainly was not used to finding paths, let alone creating one but after a plethora of animals opened their doors, fed him their food and shared their own stories of creating their own church, the Coyote finally had the energy to hunt in his own and realized the tracks he had left along the way created his own Desire Path.

the Coyote picked up a cigarette that still hasn’t left his mouth and created himself a home. it is in this home where he took all of his preys and held fests for his own instincts and his hunger was finally satisfied. the doors were always open as other doors were once for him and the Coyote gracefully and euphorically howled at the moon every night. after a while, his howls created a hunger he had never experienced before and wondered if maybe there were other places that would satisfy it once again. before considering a long journey, the Coyote created an even bigger home that grew so big it ended up collapsing on himself. the animals that used to come around and indulge in his festivites stared around the mess, but others cleaned up the Coyote created for himself and opened the doors of their homes once again.

the hunger caused by his incessant howling died down and the Coyote was taught to live a less loud life, with a cigarette still in his mouth. after a puma, a snake and a wildcat healed his injuries, the Coyote built a stronger home and lived a peaceful but eventful life. stones by strangers were constantly thrown at it and it never broke because the foundation was once that no one understood but him. a foundation built by lessons that cannot ever be unlearned is once that can only be destroyed by the one who has new experiences to live.

multiple stories that do not belong in this one can and will be told by the Coyote when the timing is right, but one must know that at some point he got himself into a fight with a court of owls that brought him down. no one heard from the Coyote for a while after this defeat, but his usual allies came to his aid once again. however, this defeat proved to be life altering and the Coyote couldn’t hunt anymore. his house was still there and open to anyone willing to bring any food, but he was not the same anymore. his survival skills were unexistent and whatever diet he had didn’t provide any nutrition. it started to look like the only way for the Coyote to survive was to go back to the land of wolves and dogs, the land that wouldn’t welcome him with open arms but at least would feed him enough to live a lifeless life. he was painfully aware of the consequences of returning and couldn’t afford any of them as he knew with time, he would stop being a Coyote.

after months of desperation and hunger, the Coyote found himself seeking aid from a Lamb. this Lamb didn’t live in West Texas and wasn’t raised in a land of wolves and dogs, but rather vicious foxes that tried to eat her at every opportunity. in their difficult coming of age, the Coyote found the Lamb (or the Lamb found the Coyote) in a place where hometown orphans like them seek shelter, which provides everything but it. they bonded by sharing their survival skills, which for a prey and predator were not that different. they learned to communicate through the Stars and the Moon in a language that only they understand and when the Coyote saw the foxes’ bite marks on the Lamb, he knew their pain was shared but unique to their own runaway plans. the Lamb didn’t go north or west but south and created her own home, without the need of hunting but collecting and gathering by not being a prey nor predator. fearful of becoming a fox, the Lamb’s ways of surviving caused great admiration and respect from the Coyote.

the Lamb knew when the Coyote’s house broke down and offered a hand that saved him from digging deeper and deepened an already unbreakable bond. the Coyote was always aware that the Lamb knew her way through the Stars and the Moon much better than him and asked her to interpret what the celestial bodies were trying to tell him, to see if maybe they had something to teach him about new ways of hunting without having to turn into a wolf or a dog. unbenknowst to both, the Coyote needed more than an interpreation of the sky. with the Lamb’s experience and power, she asked the astronomical objects beyond the Star and Moon that form the nightsky to cast a new light under the Coyote’s hunger, to paint the darkness with notes from her songs, to not only find him no longer hungry but an avid predator that could roam the land of West Texas with ease.

after a diet of cigarettes, the Coyote found that the Stars aligned the way the Lamb intended them to and was able to stop eating whatever came his way, regardless if it would satisfy him or not. it is now thanks to the Lamb south of West Texas that the Coyote is roaming freely with a cigarette in his mouth, reaching out to other coyotes to teach them how to hunt, how to make their own path just like he once did. they now together howl at the Moon, to the tune of the song from the Lamb’s notes that are painted in the nightsky.