Wolf Light Refrained

after prom, where the road runs

straight to clay,

miles fade

too long to stay.

~

the hunt became the prey.

~

high jumped the boundary line,

dripped in periwinkle,

fell, like grapes

into pine.

~

still steeped in starlight—

a ginger kiss,

a breathless howl—

undressed.

~

on the pine-soaked floor:

supple and given,

my lady and I,

a wayward constellation.

~

reflected in her eyes—

the wolf, disrobed;

guilt, bare.

the firmament weakened

by the glare of an amber eye.

~

the forest opened:

no place to run from revelation—

in the trees,

in the blood,

in the nerves, hastened.

not yet. not this.

~

goodnight kissed,

the lady caught

in my almost wolf light.

~

bet it was my conscience

caught

by the mirror in her eye

that saw the hunt in mine.

~

her present remained

deep in forest pine,

unwrapped, saved

for another time.

~

under a wolf's hide,

the ache refrains;

somewhere the wolf hunts still

to find the fell.

~

to find the fell.