Stirrings Midwinter He had been found Abandoned in the woods No one could understand How he had survived Everyone said He should have died Yet he had not His earliest memory He had never shared With anyone Was from that time It was of a warmth Of a strange breast Rich life giving milk Trickled from a nipple The like of which He would never encounter again There had been plenty of those Each one different But none like that That had given him A chance at life There was a debt He held Deep inside One to be paid Where he could There was a sound He followed along the alley It echoed through the forest From ridge to hilltop Many a human Would tell Of the fear It would instil In their being Calling to its primitive core For him It brought A scintillating tingling To every sinew Then He was truly alive The sound echoed in his soul Within it He understood A deeper purpose To existence He sensed a reason For his being alive Felt a part Of a web of life He held an inalienable loyalty To the pull of what was unknowable That contrasted and conflicted The pointlessness He witnessed In every day Infected with universal hubris Deceiving humans Into believing They were more Than a very small part of it all It was more than a feeling It had been with him As long as he could remember He conjured A werewolf To take revenge On society That had despoiled The natural world The injustice The imbalance Of his adopted kind Versus the rest The rest of life When the moon was full He never rested well Throughout day or night His purpose was lost to its sight A witness only to the desolation Of the spirit The breath of life Held hostage Like a knife At his throat Removing Every hope For what he loved And saw debased Every day Delivered to the wake Of greed and fear Day on day Year on year He was always looking Watching For any fragility For their weakness to show Noting Remembering When and where to strike The winds blew wild Across a fear full country The fortune tellers Had closed up shop There was no telling where The world would go The fear rang out In too many words Of anger To find heaven's door The company of dogs Was irresistible to him The wilderness in their souls Became one with his own In them he found the soulmates He had long ago Given up seeking In human form His senses were canine He stepped as softly on a pavement As they did on the Earth The fiercest dog Much abused by humans Would never see him As a threat Few victims ever sensed his presence He could smell the lives Each one had lived The things they did Their arrogance Their indifference Carried to him on the breeze And projected like a picture In his mind’s eye Their fate was cast in that moment How would they feel When the earth would swallow them whole As they watched the stars receding Into the universe In the ends of time No ricochet pinball wizardry Of new spun deceit No face-to-face deception In the play that continues Day to day
