Animals: “DRUNK IN AN UBER POOL, I SEE A COYOTE IN GOLDEN GATE PARK” by Lucie Pereira

DRUNK IN AN UBER POOL, I SEE A COYOTE IN GOLDEN GATE PARK

Low skulking shape in the heavy night, 
it moves with too much swagger to be
someone’s escaped pet. 
I am caged in the backseat, 
stranger at the wheel and stranger to my right. 
My love hangs his head out the passenger side window, 
a puppy intoxicated with fresh air. 

Forehead against cool glass,
I watch its loping stride, 
slow motion under streetlamp strobe.
I imagine it reaching the edge of the park and continuing, 
streaking its way down Market Street,
stopping to catch its breath in Union Square,
traipsing through the narrow alleys of Chinatown,
gazing up at the spire of the TransAmerica tower.
Who knew this human habitat could house a canine constituency?

Red light pause and it glances toward me.
Blood spinning with gin,
my chest reverberates a lupine howl.
Together we predators worship the moon,
drenched in pheromone,
while I ache for the wild things uncontained, 
wonder at the strange ex

About Lucie Pereira

Lucie Pereira (she/her) is a multiracial writer and educator. She is a programs coordinator at the nonprofit 826 Valencia and was a 2020 Interdisciplinary Writers’ Lab fellow with Kearny Street Workshop. Her work can be found in sPARKLE + bLINK and Sidereal Magazine. She lives in San Francisco with her partner and their animal, Kristofferson the cat.