Hello, out there!
I’m John Agard.
I’m supposed to be a poet.
I’ll do my best to live up to it!
JA
And I’m the other JA—
JonArno Lawson.
Be on your guard with Agard,
and with Lawson, use caution.
JL
Believe Me, CoyotesTwo sharp-fanged fawn-colored
messengers stand ready
at the bars of my back gate.
What news have you brought me, wily duo?
Am I seeing double,
or is fate
just doubling my trouble?
Either way, I only have room in my mind
for one of you.
But which one?
The one who draws me in or the one who
scares me off?
On the page it’s different.
Here on the page
I can give you equal attention.
You can both appear as you appeared in the
dry grass
beside my gate. And I can even tell you
apart now:
one with a hurt paw, the other with curious fur
carrying news, which, once you saw me,
became unimportant.
Anyway, you had only one unspeakable word
between you
and even if you had been able to say it
I couldn’t have written it.
Besides, if I say
who would believe it (except maybe my
friend John)?
That I saw two coyotes
whose shadow turned two into one.
JL
UNBELIEVABLEMy friend JonArno,
who (as it so happens)
lives in Toronto,
discovered out of the blue,
not one but two, yes, two
coyotes in his back garden.
Lucky devil! In my English
garden, what do I discover?
No less than a posse of bugs,
slugs, wood lice, snails,
the odd glowworm,
in short, creepy-crawlies!
All leaving their gooey trail!
But since coyotes are known to be
tricksters who don’t mind a lie,
just you wait, next time I send
that JonArno an email,
I’ll say, guess what, mate?
Beside my bed of roses,
right out of the summer blue,
I spotted not one, but two
hippos. Yes, two. And the way
they struck up their poses
for a selfie was unbelievable!
Don’t you believe me?
JA
QuestionsIf I perch
in a cage
am I a bird?
If I lie
on a page
am I a word?
If I hang
from a branch
am I a fruit?
If I hide
in the earth
am I a root?
O answers
are folly
when questions bring bliss.
Without questions, can I exist?
JA
Should I Be Me?Who’s who?
I’m me.
You’re you.
We’re we.
He’s he.
She’s she.
So tell us
what to do—
Should he be she?
Should she be he?
Should I be me
or you?
JL
Copyright © 2025 by John Agard and JonArno Lawson. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
