wheel of fortune

week of 1/29/2023: wheel of fortune

Do you know how coyotes train their young to hunt?

They wait until the late summer, when the pups are lanky and hungry and throbbing with unfocused energy. And then the adult coyotes show the little coyotes: there, that rabbit. Here, that lamb. And then the pups pounce, and they are all teeth and claw and sinew but no skill, not really, and so they tear out the shoulder of a small soft creature and then leave it alive, bleeding. The throat next time, I imagine the mother saying to her child.

One summer morning, sitting under a tree, I watched a whole herd of cattle mosey past. For cows they were in a hurry, stomping almost as fast as you can power-walk. And then, behind, a coyote, capricious and mischievous, lanky and bold, trotting with its tongue bouncing from its mouth. I watched it herd those cows all the way up the meadow and then trot away, into the trees, grinning. I believe I heard it chuckling.

I imagine the wheel of fortune in the paws of a coyote. Lazy and unbothered most of the time, it leaves the wheel still and we linger where we are, the bottom or the top. But when the coyote needs entertainment, she spins the wheel, and our luck, or our unluck, changes. However your luck has been of late, take note: the coyote is now spinning her wheel, and your luck is changing.