When You Love a Wild Thing

 

When you love a wild thing,

you're rekindling your kinship

with the wild.

Every cell in your body remembers

when you once lived free upon the land,

when you followed the Old Ways

we once used to understand.

Part of you remembers

when you hunted the deer,

and part remembers when you were

the deer being hunted.

Both sides know fear.

The part of you that

catches your breath

while your heart quickens,

when that old grey whale

turns her ancient eye on you,

is the part that recognizes,

but can't put words to,

the message in her mournful song

about this planetary home

where we all try to belong.

I gave my heart to a wolf-pup,

his eyes intelligent and true.

He loved me more

than anyone I ever knew.

He remained wild,

but left both wilderness and sea.

In order to be with me

he relinquished

being free.

And when it came

his time to leave,

he tried so hard to stay.

Since he's been gone,

it's like the wilderness itself

has gone away.

Now when I walk,

yes, I'm looking at the sky.

I'm listening

at each midnight moon

for his lonely cry.

I walk the length

of his favorite river

with tears that we're apart.

But I'm glad

I loved a wild thing

because he fortified

my heart.

for Brendan at earthweal: Animal Poetry. I am not sure if this meets the challenge, but Pup's heart and mine were so attuned. I have never been closer to another living being.