The Dog

I am an unsocialized dog biting at your heels,

Snarling and snapping at your shadow.

I am yanking at the lead, choking myself out

On the pretty metal teeth hooked into my neck

Because I am starving for this affection.

.

I am so hungry for it that I'll kill it,

Take it between my two paws and crush it.

That thing never had a chance, not when I,

With this feral soul, decided on loving it.

.

If you're going to leave, do it before I find

The courage to lay my head down at your feet.

In fact, just leave now so that I can learn

How to take up space in an empty train car.

.

A dog where a doe should have been,

A wolf instead of a coyote both caught

In the snare of the unforgivable dream of love.

What would it be like to sleep with warmth?

.

I'll never know because teeth sank deep

Into the soft crevice of your neck and ripped

You open like a bag of candy, spilling those

Precious little secrets that should stay inside.

.

And I am a dog in a wolf's world,

A wolf in a home of domestication.

I am a monster to the sheep

And a sheep to the monsters.