Wolf

There's a seven foot tall wolf With dog-like legs Stepping upright Beneath the moonlight In the backyards Of shadows By stars Suppressing growls With a click Of human teeth grown into its jowls

It's sick And knows it Stoically standing With prickly yellow eyes, Slashed gashes for eyelashes, And streaks of blood on its cheeks

I move on all fours Through the doors Like fog off the moors Encroaching undercover My heart's racing I'm placing the human flesh Of my paw On its canine palm-- A calm decompresses The steeled shield of its breast;

A song splashes with the brook A memory unlatches along with ashes to ashes On the pages and pages of column passages-- Torn upon the same solemn psalm in my book