Wolf Wisdom

"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
Excerpt from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - prompt from Real Toads.

I lived with a wolf

for fourteen years.

I found him in the wild,

where he was trying

to survive

as a baby, on his own.

I took him home

and he lived

in a house with me

for the rest of his life.

But his spirit

-and mine-

belonged solely

to the wild.

He made

these adaptations

to be with me.

In return,

every afternoon

I took him

in search

of wilderness trails,

rushing rivers,

the ocean's shore.

Tail up,

alert for the scent

and sound

of critters

in the bush,

he'd race before me,

looping back

from time to time,

to check on me,

then off he'd go again,

forever chasing

that enticing
and elusive

wildness

that coursed through

his soul,
and traveled always
before him,
luring him
just a little bit
farther
down the trail.

When he died,

his death 

awakened

my inner wild

wolf-woman,

who had been sleeping.

Now his spirit

lives within

my heart,

and I am

longing

even more

for our
shared wilderness.

I can feel him,

now Wild Woman,

wanting to

run through the bush.

I can feel him

wanting to

breathe

the salt sea air,
plunge into
its roiling waves.

I can feel him

wanting me to

flee this township

and return us

to our

wilderness home.

As much as

I tamed him,

insofar as

a wild creature
ever

allows himself

to be tamed,

he woke up

the wild

in me,

and now

Wild Woman

is singing

unstoppably

and

forever

through

my bones.