FOUR SONGS
============

WOLF SONG
---------
Life ebbing from deep wounds
The grey wolf 
Already in moonlight shroud
Sings her last song:
- Come, sisters who have gone before
Help me reach the place
Where you are.

A million grey spirits reply
In welcoming song...

We humans hear 
And think it is the wind.


DOG SONG
--------
I stand beneath your midnight window
And watch for threatening rabbits
Or skunks, or (heaven forbid) cats
And if I spot one, I sing the Dog Song
That all animals recognize:
- Away, intruder, leave my people in peace
Or face the keenness of my fangs.
The ancient proud song of my race
That you hear only as noise
That makes you threaten me, your loving protector,
In vague and sleepy phrases.

As always, I forgive.


OSPREY SONG
-----------
I soar on salt wind above the trees
Calling to my children:
Soon, soon I return with food.

Lesser birds hear and presume to harrass me
As I fly nestwards with nourishment.
I intend no harm to them
But they insist on filling 
Their tiny silly lives
With meaningless heroisms
Swoops and peckings and screeches
I ignore them, and bear my silver trophy
To my children, future rulers
Of the bright shore skies.


POSSUM SONG
-----------
I know that I am not intelligent
Not cunning, not speedy,
Nor (except in the opinion of certain predators)
Particularly tasty.
I could be cute and cuddly if I cared to be
But my huge ratty tail would have to go.

I remember once when I was little:
Near the bottom of the hill where we lived
A pair of humans watching the moon
The man sitting on a wall, and the woman
Stretched out with her head on his lap
Gazing at the emerging stars.
There was so much love in that place
That even I felt it, and thought
- This is something I should investigate!
Even daring to hope a little
That I would understand...

But as I emerged from under a bush
All innocent and ready to share their twilight love
The man screamed Holy ... - look at the size of that rat!
(Meaning me)
And jumped up, forgetting his prone companion
Who was promptly and painfully dumped onto the hard ground
And started screaming herself when she saw me.

Meanwhile her hero was running at top speed
Up the hill as far from me as possible 
Apparently intending to keep his lady
Between himself and me (I had not moved a step
Since all this commotion had begun)
Which situation, when the lady became aware of it,
Caused no end of what I took to be
Bad language, and certainly bad feeling.

What I had come there to learn
Was there no longer.
A cloud covered the moon, and tears
Came to my little orange eyes
As the sounds of the yelling and cursing
(As I now know it to be)
Receded into the distance.

As little as I knew of the subject
It did not sound as if any love could have survived
My innocent appearance on the scene.

I'm sorry - although there's not much
I can ever do about it - 
That I looked so much like a rat to them.

They would have been charmed by a raccoon
All rings and mask and tiny washing paws.


- B.Black
August 2003