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, Coyotes Two 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 UNBELIEVABLE My 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 Questions If 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.