Lupus in A Minor

Lupus In A Minor

Her voice growls while she

sleeps
legs furiously pumping, quicker and quicker
never fast enough to meet her friends
They are fighting a war of

darkness
where the Sun stops and the Moon begins
uncertain peace between, essence of the tides

Slowly she

awakens
having become a part of the place
where consciousness is suspended
her journey across the night
The wind

whispers through the trees
She drinks the night scent
and is reluctant to awaken to attend the war

The faces of

her family assail her
her brave mate, the first
When the angry bird came with the man-gods in its belly
he led the

pack to a secret den but the bird found them
It chased them higher and higher into the ice mountains

She remembers

the final nuzzling as he told her to take the others
her sister and the young male, the four healthy pups
Then the bird

ripped the night, blinding them with the rays of its Moon
He snarled at the pups as they attempted to follow
and the

bird tracked him as he led it away from the pack

There was a great storm as the bird beat its wings against the

Earth
Fire spit from the sticks of the men as he raged against the storm
and leaped toward the bird
His body was

lifted and held, black against a cloud of white
The greatest spirit she had known lay broken on the ground
and the

man-gods laughed as the bird screamed away

Her voice began its mournful song
answered and joined by those in the

pack
each voice different from the next
Hers above and beyond the others in its awful pain

The haunting sound it

made was pure of lament
farewell to the mate of her life
She licked his freezing wounds, nuzzled his stiffening

body
gathered her young and the others
The wind moaned through the mountain forest as she led them away

They are

silent shadows, starving and running
when the bird finds them once more
Her sister stumbles, lays broken in a pool of

blood
The young male refuses to leave her
nipping and whimpering nervously
encouraging her to rise and flee
The

storm bird returns and he joins her for ever
Witness from the trees, wild eyes
She and her young are shadows

watching

Thoughts of her young bring her awake with a start
Nature is merciful
The memory of the slaughter of

her Children is held from her
She whimpers as she licks her fur
and tastes the blood of each of them

There is a

howling come down
the most ungodly sound these men have ever heard
a single voice of thousands, crying out loss and

rage
the darkest sign of profound pain and loneliness
It is not of this Earth
Fear stands their man-hair on end as

they break camp

Unlike her black mate, she is silver
Their man-eyes don't see her until she is in the camp
They

rush to their guns as she crouches in their midst
She knows what they have to offer, the release she comes seeking
She

drinks their fear as the fire sticks speak
She doesn't hear their hollow nervous laughter
When it is over she rides

the pieces of lead into the embrace of her family

They are gone running, shadows slipping through the storm
until

the sweet ghost song
voices lifting on wind are all that remains
where the Sun stops and the Moon begins
uncertain

peace between, essence of the tides

Copyright 2002 Thomas Paul SternerHowe