It's Still Life

White Wolf

This wolf, white as light,
single-minded, truth and insight,
sees through my human stories.

The ones I believe of myself.
The ones I ask others to believe.
The ones I trim for appearance sake.

And those stories
have substance,
and my substance casts dark shadows.

Stories are shadows, and reflections,
so if the wolf is light,
I am the one casting dark shadows,

… not the wolf.

This wolf doesn’t hide in a pine pole forest.
It keeps itself in open view,
true, and howls at the moon.

Perhaps this wolf is what I avoid in myself.
Perhaps it is the myth that I give it.
Metaphor or not,

somewhere in my own myth a wolf resides.

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For dVerse Poets. Write a poem using any animal of your choice (real or mythological) as a metaphor for how ideas and words take shape for you. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2023.