Coyote

You pointed out the fence, it was leaning towards the neighbor's house
 The waterlogged firewood from the last
 few winters had become one with the fence
 The mold holding it all together, the weight of the wood
 The wind blowing in its direction
 The rain pouring down the hill was too much for the fence
 A few years earlier, I had an old tree chopped down
 That was leaning towards the house
 to protect the roof and for firewood
 And now I've got twenty yards of fence to rebuild
 I started bringing the heavy wet logs into the back area
 Into what I referred to as the Dungeon Area, two or so at a time
 The doc said I need more exercises, I said, "What kind of exercises?"
 She said, "It doesn't matter, any kind"
 I figured I have to get some of it out of the way
 To help whoever I'd hire to repair the fence
 I was breaking out with sweat
 When a neighbor appeared out of
 nowhere and said, "How's it going, neighbor?"
 Why did he have to build a house on that empty lot
 With tall oaks and pines and sequoias there?
 Year after year, the grass would grow so tall and get so dry
 That the property was a borderline fire hazard
 I called a real estate agent and offered to buy that plot of land
 But the owner never accepted my offer
 I want to maintain my privacy, the house was so enchanting
 Set back in all the trees I'd bought
 the house for curb appeal and seclusion
 The signs on the street that said Deer Crossing
 And I went out there one day and
 the trees in the lot were chopped down
 Then I went out there another day and foundation was built
 And now there's a house next door and a neighbor guy I never met
 Until just now when he said, "Hey, how are you doing?"
 I said, "I'm okay, thanks" and then I walked back into the Dungeon
 I dropped the logs I was holding on the
 cement floor and closed the door behind me
 I came back into the house through the
 Dungeon from another door into the kitchen
 And said, "This is not how I wanted to spend my fucking day"
 Drenched with sweat, I got an iced tea from the fridge
 And walked up to the highest point in my yard
 And sat in the sun next to my hot tub
 To remind myself why I bought the home in the first place
 I looked off at the pines off in the foothills and called my friend
 She told me about a strange Chinese restaurant in North Canton, Ohio
 A five year old girl was discovered
 in a freezer, murdered by her mother
 Her mom got 22 years,
 the father of her child got a life sentence for influencing
 And manipulating the mother into being the abusive mother she'd become
 My friend also said a dead body was
 discovered on 8th Street in Massillon
 Not far from my father's home
 She said the police got a tip,
 found the body buried six feet deep (Six feet deep)
 And they also discovered three neglected kids in the house
 All of them under three years old (Under three years old)
 Unaccompanied by adults and a
 neglected dog in the basement (In the basement)
 I came back into the house and did what I came here to do
 Dove into my 2017 expenses
 You were watching news upstairs (You were watching news upstairs)
 A coyote was walking around with a jar on
 his head, suffocating (With a jar on his head)
 Someone had some footage of him roaming around (Roaming around)
 The newscaster said (The newscaster said)
 "Keep a lookout for him" but they
 estimated he had 48 hours to live (48 hours to live)
 I can't take too much of the news
 anymore, political things are toxic enough
 Then there's news of dead children, coyotes suffocating
 And neglected dogs without food or water and basements
 So we switched channels
 There was a band on TV, I'd never seen them before
 To my recollection,
 there were 12 people pushing buttons in stationary positions
 The singer sounded like an even
 simpler Simple Minds, if that's possible
 But I could pretty much watch anybody perform, to be honest
 One of my favorite performers is Jimmy Swaggart
 I could watch him sing gospels all day
 But anyhow, after Psalm 4, the silver staff band
 He said, "Please change this,
 I can't take it anymore, this sounds like Tears for Fears"
 I thought about texting a friend
 about how depressed I was by this band
 By I didn't feel like the back and forth that could potentially happen
 At 51, you got to call your shots
 On how your prioritize your time and your back and forths
 Then I spent the day working, doing more things for my house
 The neverending fix-up that my mom said
 I'll be working on until the day that I die
 The Money Pit, is the chimney guy calling?
 The first guy to ever enter my home to do repair on my house
 It's always something, always
 At 10 P.M., you said you smelled a skunk ("I smell a skunk")
 And you were right, the odor got more intense
 I took a piss outside to see if I could smell the skunk and I didn't
 While I was taking a piss, I looked up at the moon
 And my god it was beautiful (I looked up at the moon)
 And it smelled like pine (Smelled like pine)
 All my headaches went away for just
 that moment in time (Moment in time)
 I came back inside and told you
 I couldn't smell the skunk outside ("I can't smell the skunk outside")
 But how powerful the scent was when
 I came back in through the dining room
 I walked up into the master bedroom
 and the smell was even worse up there
 You'd been on the internet researching and decided it was not a skunk
 But a gas leak into the house that was going to explode
 You said, "Put your jacket on fast and take a few things
 And don't do anything to cause sparks"
 I said, "I have nothing on me that
 would cause anything to make sparks"
 You said it again, you said, "Don't do anything to make sparks"
 I said, "I don't smoke cigarettes or have any matches
 Or anything at all to make any fucking sparks"
 You said, "Well,
 if you do have anything to make any
 kind of friction, it could cause sparks"
 And at that point, I kept my mouth shut
 I followed you along down the stairs
 I said, "Whatever you need from me, whatever you need
 Just let me know what you need"
 We took the battery powered lantern from the porch
 And I walked around the house and proved to you
 That there are no gas lines coming into my home
 I know this home like the back of my hand
 You finally calmed down,
 and I was upset that we had missed Saturday Night Live
 We came back in, and you told me
 To look around the big old spooky house for the skunk
 It was 1:30 in the morning, I said,
 "What the fuck am I going to do if I find a skunk?
 I'm not a skunk catcher, you want me to go into the basement
 And see if there's a skunk down there, that's where you think he is?
 Sorry, but I wouldn't even know what to do if I cornered a skunk"
 I said to you, "Look, here's the deal, we're leaving tomorrow
 Who knows how long it's gonna be until we're back here?
 The skunk is a welcome guest in my home
 This is my home and I got taxes to work on
 And I don't want to talk about the skunk anymore"
 She said, "Calm down, Mark"
 That you've been researching more and that skunks were foragers
 And I said, "What does 'forager' mean?"
 You said, "They don't stay in one spot long"
 And I said, "Well there you go, he'll be gone within the next few days
 Problem solved, the skunk problem is resolved"
 We were exhausted, we considered leaving but it was late out there
 We went to bed, the smell of skunk in the air
 I was up until 3 o'clock in the
 morning, reading A Confederacy of Dunces
 Tired of all the bickering we've been through
 We tend to have this bickering way about us
 On these fast "Quick, let's go check on the house" visits
 I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning
 My heart was racing, I couldn't fall back asleep
 So I woke you up and we walked into town
 I got a bagel, you got an iced coffee and I got an iced tea
 We came back and did the usual routines
 Locked up the house, shut off the water
 Left money for the maid,
 turned on the alarm system, and set the thermostat
 And I took photos of the early
 blooming daffodils and sent them to my friend
 I sat at the top of the hill again, taking in the sun again
 And trying to remember why I ever
 bought this house in the first place again
 A hummingbird was buzzing around me by the bamboo
 Smoke was coming out of the chimneys
 I don't understand myself
 I spend the first 18 years of my life
 trying to get out of a 3 bedroom house
 With a yard full of sticks and squirrels
 And way later in life, I ended up buying a 3 bedroom house
 With a yard full of sticks and squirrels
 You were in the kitchen, dehydrating vegetables
 With the dehydrator your father gave you
 I walked down the hill, my back hurting, into the living room door
 You said, "I'm done dehydrating
 vegetables, I'm packed and ready to go"
 It was still the faint smell of skunk lingering in the house
 It was Super Bowl Sunday and the
 traffic going back to San Francisco was hell
 You dropped me off at my place, and I've known you long enough to know
 That look on your face that says "I
 don't want to see you for a couple of days"
 So I left you alone, cleaned my apartment, made my bed
 Opened some windows, cleaned my hardwood floors
 And I dumped the bag of 2017 paperwork on the living room floor
 You sent me a text, "Yay, they rescued the coyote
 And got the jar off his head, he survived"