Shaman paints the wolf
and full moon blister red
above a sinuous line of orange scales,
serpent tail pointing to the past,
head spitting a speckled frog
half digested, white eyes lifeless.
One more sweep of horsetail brush
and they wink awake–one more
chance to escape–legless
mind ascends in sparks.
Wolf sniffs the new stars,
remembers all wolves
as a child knows its mother,
curling mouth to tail,
warm den moist and rich
denying the dark worm of night.
Outside branches claw
thin veins in crusts of snow,
frozen rivulets of glacier blood,
the red net of moonlight
eclipsed by the heart of earth
beating in its rib-cave of wind.
Brush extends, tail
soft and slick with paint,
tongue licking the edge
of my mouth. Yellow eyes
stare at the burning hole,
my lungs explode.
Terry’s collection of poetry, The Poet’s Garage, will be published by Unsolicited Press in May 2020. His poems and stories have recently appeared in Typishly, The Mantle, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Front Porch Review, Jersey Devil Press, The Lake and other publications. Lucky Ride (Unsolicited Press), an irreverent Vietnam-era road novel, is set to release in 2022. His website is https://terrytierney.com.
