What Wolves Read

The posture of packmates:
ears, tail, stance, glance.

Traces of prospective prey:
spoor, scent, scuffle, scratch.

Paths to the spirit world:
wind, water, wolf star, moon.

When a path opens, they howl
at wraiths they cannot touch:

lost ancestors loping soundless
across a shadow grassland

cowboys slouched in the saddle,
women with babies on their back

and buffalo, unnumbered buffalo,
broad-backed, bounteous, toothsome

huge herds flowing like rivers
to some far and sundered sea.