New Poem in Crisis Mode

We’re Wolves

We have been howling in the wilderness for ages, to the moon,

To the empty sky if necessary, but

Never silent—or we would be lost, our longings strewn

Across the universe, our species shut

Forever out of what lies so far ahead

We cannot imagine it. Sometimes two

Of us huddled together, our eyes bright red,

At other times a numerous pack outspread

Our voices criss-crossed in the icy blue

Of the secret winter, the sound of ice

Scraping on the stars, and echoes like names

We dare not speak but feel, the painful price

Of eternity. You ask for nothing

When you ask for silence, and our loathing,

As though our howls were prayers, better wordless,

And all our harmonies unwound and breathless.