Lonely Wolf

Dragon’s breath burns
Eagle’s snare kills
Cougar’s claws strike
Human’s heart learns
All the blood spills –
Only wolves howl
in the night, to
the stars, the moon,
and the lonely,
dark sky, for just
one moment – in fate,
in faith, for hope,
for sorrow, all
because of no
tomorrow or
of death, of fright,
of winter and ice
and the burning,
scarlet sun.

‘Lonely wolf,
don’t you cry
There’s still a sky;
Still a few who haven’t died.
Lonely wolf,
Why do you howl?
Sounds like rage,
Like fiery fury.
Your breath is foul,
Foul with the stench
of an old man’s sage.
Why? Why must you kill;
Why bring death?’

‘Because I’ve nothing
else, nothing in hell
or on Earth, nothing
at all to lose.’

‘Lonely wolf,
You with fur that
shines so bright;
You with eyes so
dark with life;
You with a heart
so full of strife –
To what point, then?’

‘Need there be one?
To what point doth
the Earth turn?’

‘It turns to catch
the light of the sun
It turns to keep
us fierce and alive.’

‘Why, then, is there
death at all?
Ravens call and
my kind has howled
because of abundance
in all of death.’

‘There is death because
life is lonely; it needs
a companion, a foil –
Like you, lonely wolf,
Whose heart shall burn,
Not with hatred, but
with love.’