My Neighbor Down the Hill Burns

My Neighbor Down the Hill Burns 

Cuttings, dead branches, leaves,

and twigs burn while a charcoal

colored dog barks and runs back

and forth across his backyard.

My neighbor's dog, a funny

mutt with short legs and bushy

fur around its jowls and throat,

barks at what seems to be

another dog running in our woods,

but this new dog disappears then

reappears, making itself small

then large, shifting colors

and shape as though by craft.

Yet in the open, it premiers

as a coyote with scruffy tail,

pointy muzzle and taut thorax.

Then it's gone in a puff of smoke.