Lair of the White Wolf

I bundle up

And I dwindle myself

Into size

Of ice sheets

Surprise

Hoisted up and spat out

By the yesty waves of

Lake Michigan

Onto Belmont Harbor

In January

When no leaves tarry

So I amalgamate to hibernate

So furry

La mujer de lobo

Unshaven

Callous-padded

With furrowed brows

Encircling the den

Protecting the kin

Beneath layers of frost-kissed maple leaves

Nose tucked into tail

 

But when the moon wanes

Snouted shadow

Unfurls

And sails into regions demarcated by

Deep cracks in the mantel

Feeling out the lightless floors

And frigid doors

Of a memory-haunted den of past winters

Jaws splinter

And divide

No more place to hide

When the cock comes calling

And demands the hairs be gone

Every one

So the juices and creases

And wrinkled flesh pieces

Can commingle without entanglement

But do you pay my rent?

Solemn head shaking of “no”

Then into the snow you go

Lobo pride

Labial pride

System-wide phallocide

As the whiteness retreats into snowflakes

Retreats into ice sheets

Gets slurped into limb-crunching waves

While the frost-coated masses

Huddle opaquely in shallow-dug graves

 

One of my spirit allies

• Chicago
• death
• feminism
• Poetry
• sex
• shamanism
• totem animal
• wolves