The Wolf

Like a grey shadow lurking in the light,     He ventures forth along the edge of night;     With silent foot he scouts the coulie's rim     And scents the carrion awaiting him.     His savage eyeballs lurid with a flare     Seen but in unfed beasts which leave their lair     To wrangle with their fellows for a meal     Of bones ill-covered. Sets he forth to steal,     To search and snarl and forage hungrily;     A worthless prairie vagabond is he.     Luckless the settler's heifer which astray     Falls to his fangs and violence a prey;     Useless her blatant calling when his teeth     Are fast upon her quivering flank - beneath     His fell voracity she falls and dies     With inarticulate and piteous cries,     Unheard, unheeded in the barren waste,     To be devoured with savage greed and haste.     Up the horizon once again he prowls     And far across its desolation howls;     Sneaking and satisfied his lair he gains     And leaves her bones to bleach upon the plains.