Lupine

When I was a young wolf undergoing transformation

that trickster moon, so rich with gravitational pull,

drew the buried beast out of me. Stalking the streets

with my sharpened howls seeking out the night

I set my sights on warm hearts whose keepers did not

believe in my kind or in fear. Something in their delusion

dragged at my thirst, which had no trouble finding

its way into their homes and shelters. I showed them fear.

Such were my nights for years as a fallow soul; I shed my

goatskin and terrorised. I licked their wounds with glee

until one chanced night the moon refused my skin.

The beast did not come. Confused and rejected, I ran

until I dipped headfirst into a solemn silver lake not knowing

whether I was unravelling in a spent dream or simply drowning.