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 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.


Another poem about my black wolf, written in 2018.  I have written a book full of poems about this wonderful creature. He shared my happiest years. Ten 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.

Shared with earthweal's open link.