“NEVILLE RUN” - Lyrics

If I were a coyote

If my prospects were lean

It’s likely you would find me

In the Neville Park Ravine

That’s where I’d find my refuge

My temporary home

If I were a coyote

That’s exactly where I’d roam

Neville run, Neville run

For all the hungry creatures in the setting sun

Neville run, Neville run

You are running scared and you are not the only one.

If I were a coyote

In disappearing woods

I’d wander to the city

Where I’d do the best I could

Beside those pretty driveways

I’d gladly fill my plate

Until the day my wild ways

Would seal my sorry fate

(Chorus)

He might have been trapped and tethered

Then dealt the final card

But hundreds of kind people cried out

“Not in our backyard!”

Now as we live beside him

In this natural place

Maybe we can start to clean up

All the mess that made

Neville run, Neville run

If we don’t stand beside him

Then I’m sure our days are done

Neville run, Neville run

For all the hungry creatures

Underneath this setting sun

Neville run, Neville run

You are running scared

And you are not the only one.

You are not the only one.

    - April, 2009

My friend Amanda lives in the Beach neighbourhood of east-end Toronto.  She called my attention to the story of a coyote living in the Neville Park Ravine and suggested I write a song about it.  Having killed a small dog, the coyote (dubbed “Neville” ) was marked to be trapped and euthanized by the City...but many local residents protested!  In response, the City kept its humane traps in place but promised not to kill the animal, planning instead to move it to a more suitable location such as a wildlife preserve.  Neville continues to evade capture.

Play “Neville Run”