Of Wolves and Dogs

Moon wane and I woke
dirt under my fingernails
She said, ‘You were digging the bones
of a man in love with death.’

She was crimson and white
And I asked her if I killed him
For sure I could not recall it,
Though I dreamed of howling trees

It was my yellow eyed kinsman
Who followed the hunter’s smell
and smiling, rendered him
to meat and blood-squeezed fat

Teeth marks were on his skull
I asked who devoured him
She said, ‘your people left him
as a poison for his own.’

She shone laughing at me
While strange food fills their stomachs
I’ll go hungry with my own folk
And feast well at full moon

***


They will not find you, the people
Who sought you in ellipse and epigram
Who sought you in taxidermy
who pinned your meaning against you.

The only ones who will find you
Will be those who run into the sea
like dogs after a stick, discovering
that every prize is a ship's mast

And who cares if the wood rots?
Who cares what the salt sea spoils?
heads spit gold teeth on the belts
of the men who sing our adventures.

The Ring

He knew a lot more about them than I did. There we were in the jeweller's while he guessed at the clarity or cut or carat, correctly as it turned out, and talked about claw settings and inclusions. Me, I was only helpful in not mentioning my prejudice against diamonds; there's such a sense of kidology about them. The most valuable look like glass, so why not buy glass? Give me a ruby or an emerald any day, though obviously diamonds set them off nicely...

Still, she likes white gold and diamonds so we found ourselves staring haplessly at the solitaires, and he leapt over the boundaries of his budget almost instantly. I might have been flattered that he asked me to help, but frankly he was seeking assistance everywhere; his sister, his mother, his prospective mother-in-law, his prospective brother-in-law and their closest Spanish friend in London. He hasn't asked the termagent who, when she finds out, will castigate him for wishing to marry his girlfriend, and me for allowing him to spend so much money on the engagement ring - as if I could stop him. As it was, all I could do was advise him to wait and shop around, but he has his mind so made up to propose, it was like watching someone steel themselves for their first ever parachute jump.

The ring is pretty but he is fighting off the suspicion that she'd really prefer a puppy. We'll soon know.