Titania and Coyote - a ballad

Tonight, Coyote drinks the wine

Of his own slit throat

And shuffles off to the Faerie court

In his ragged overcoat.

And when Titania turns him down

And bids him gone from here

He smiles a secret smile

And he sheds no tear.

How gay the Faerie dance!

How gay the Faerie court!

How gay the Faerie at his ease

And making raucous sport!

Coyote fits in here as well

As antlers on a bull

He steals a jug of Faerie gin

Eats till he is full.

Titania's consort laughs at his ragged grey muzzle

Dances 'round Coyote like a child with a puzzle

Titania's consort mocks

The ugly old beast

One's the fairest thing on Earth

The other is the least...

The younger of the Gentry

Almost look alarmed

To have a guest among them

Who cannot quite be charmed.

The older ones, in contrast

Must think him quite the mark

See Titania's consort

Circle 'round him like a shark.

"Come with me," Coyote says,

"Come walk with me a ways

Sister Moon does love me

And she'll bathe us with her rays."

"Never me!" Titania says,

Her bearing sharp and proud

She barely flicks her eyes;

Her consort laughs aloud

How gay the Faierie masquerade!

How gay the Faerie ball!

How stately Queen Titania

Presiding over all!

But for all her beauty

And for all her power

Her consort with Coyote lies

Within her very bower!