Alice Corbin. El Coyotito. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

El Coyotito

By Alice Corbin


From “New Mexico Folk-songs” WHEN I left Hermosillo
My tears fell like rain,
But the little red flower
Consoled my pain.

I am like the coyote	5
That rolls them, and goes
Trotting off side-ways,
And nobody knows.

The green pine has fallen,
Where the doves used to pair;	10
Now the black one may find on returning
Little tow-heads with sandy hair!

The adobe is gone
Where my sword hung suspended;
Why worry—when everything’s	15
At the last ended?

The adobe is gone
Where my mirror was bright,
And the small cedar tree
Is the rabbit’s tonight.	20

The cactus is bare
Where the tunas were sweet;
No longer need you be jealous
Of the women I meet.

Friends, if you see her	25
In the hills up above,
Don’t tell her that I am in prison—
For she is my love.