Hunt

Across a salt-stained strip of sand,

a wolf noses his way through the driftwood.

What he seeks, he knows not,

but his jowls water for a prey

he has never tasted.

.

As the brown paws scour the beach,

a serpent, dozing in the last of twilight’s

warmth, perks its diamond head.

Sea breeze carries away all sound as it glides

over the fresh tracks.

.

Instinct drives the wolf onward

past the stench of dead fish and

the clatter of whale bones

toward a black opening in the rocks.

.

Into the whistling mouth, the hunter leaps,

ignoring the rising fur on his back.

Behind the tidal pool, the daylight abandons him,

but his moonlit eyes blaze the trail.

.

As the timber pelt presses onward, the serpent slips

into the pool, unnoticed among the rippling gray waves.

It floats, mimicking the driftwood, as it waits

for the thick paws to slip on the wet stone.

.

In the darkest recess, the wolf breathes in.

What he thirsts for finally surrounds him:

a cold so callous it fills his bones

with the long-forgotten frost of the tundra.

Death.

.

A gust howls through the shadows,

wrenching his legs from beneath him.

One moment, his paws scrabble at the ledge.

The next, the frothing waters embrace him.

.

Frigid scales wrap around the wolf’s

flailing forelegs, dragging his snout down.

Born in the frozen rivers of the North,

the hunter reacts with the law

of fang.

.

Its bleeding tail writhing,

the serpent reveals its own fangs.

The wolf rears back, dodging the diamond head.

As the hunter crashes down, his paw catches the snake’s neck,

pinning it to the submerged stone.

.

Snakes move like fish through the saltwater,

but the wolf has lungs hardened from moonless chases;

his legs do not slacken as the green body shakes.

To be a breath away from its prey,

but never tasting his blood.

.

The wolf emerges as the final sliver of sun retreats

his foe hanging from sodden jaws.

He leaves the body for the hawks

who silently accept his offering.

.

In view of the rising moon,

the hunter limps toward the North once more.

For Life can only strengthen

where Death lurks.