Monday Blues: Don't Fence Me In

Coyote prowls the edges of our city, and unfilled void areas. But I have also seen her dancing with abandon between the oaks' summer shade at the Claremont Colleges. I have seen him running pell mell down busy streets close to home while chased by loud, smoke-belching demons from Hell (cars). I have seen him running up a quiet residential street in the heart of the Village, passing within inches of one another, as I pedaled down the same street.

Then today, this coyote. Searching, hunting for a tasty morsel in the morning light, she blends into the land, favored by nature, reviled by man. I suppose someone driving past could have caught a glimpse of coyote as she roamed the mounds of dirt and rock on the empty lot. Then again, with a speed limit of 45mph (or has it been raised to fifty by now) it is unlikely a drivers' eyes would have made the distinction, separated the slow moving, solitary figure from the grass, the multi-hued soil, the shadows. Sometimes it's not what you see, but what you don't miss, that makes slower, two-wheeled travel better.

I just can't help but think of this:

"Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above

Don't fence me in

Let me ride through the wide open country that I love

Don't fence me in

Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze

And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees

Send me off forever but I ask you please

Don't fence me in

Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle

Undeneath the western skies

On my Cayuse, let me wander over yonder

Till I see the mountains rise...

Don't fence me in..."

I suppose the most iconic versions of this Cole Porter song are the ones by the olde time Hollywood cowboys, such as this one by Roy Rogers, or this one by Gene Autry, but the version by the Killers is more my style. 

Blue: A color, a mood or emotion, a genre of music. Tune in each Monday for another installment of the Blues, with a cycling twist.