Strayed: A Sonnet

Tethered she snarled, the girl gone lupine
Refused the food he offered through her cage.
Strips of a crime; sweet hare meat soaked in brine
Slaughtered that morning at too young an age.

Wiser ones warned her: don’t get caught in traps.
Don’t think he won’t wear your pelt like a prize
When his gun is through with you. He will wrap
Himself in your warmth under moonless skies.

Call it love, he was afraid she would roam,
Sprawled and pressed against her cage he would lie.
Sniffing slow, she was thrown; he smelled like home
Unwillingly warmed to his eyes gone wide.

With him she lies. Stray of her feral side.
His eyes are brown like fawns, like bear cub hide.

*Lupine: of, like, or relating to a wolf or wolves

Image by Ronan Donovan "Wild Wolves in Yellowstone" for National Geographic