When You Love a Wild Thing III

When you love a wild thing,

you can never  again

return

to being tame.

He'll take you farther

than you'd ever go alone,

after which you'll never

be the same.

He was a wild thing,

and he shared

my wild and wilderness-y 

heart.

We gamboled endless 

sandy beaches,
never apart

through the happiest
and wildest

of our years,

and, when we had to leave,

we mourned together

our lost home

with inner tears,

the way all the wild 

and displaced creatures 

grieve.

He was a wild one,

and in all my life,

he was my dearest friend.

He was himself,

black wolf who loved me,

to the end.

He made me laugh

as untamed wild things
always will,

living all his life

with a spirit
too big

to kill.

He loved me more

than anyone I ever knew,

so it was harder than I dreamed

when our years together

were through.

And, when he went away,

though he tried so hard to stay,

most of my heart

went with him,

for pain is the price

love pays.

Forever now, I'll listen

for his song.

I will miss him

every day

all my life long.

From the moment

his heart stopped beating,

from the hour

we had to part,

I've been

a weary wolf woman

with wolf howls

in my heart.

for my prompt at Real Toads: Must Love Dogs. I have written a book full of poems about this wonderful wolf-dog. He shared my happiest years, and seven years after his death, I still miss him every day. The phrase "a spirit too big to kill" comes from my friend Annell, who wrote it soon after he died. I am so grateful for our fourteen years together.

I am sharing this in the Poetry Pantry with the good folks at Poets United this weekend.