THE CHILD AND THE WOLF:

She was just a pretty little brown Cherokee girl,

Of long jet black hair & sweet smile that curled,

Below the eagled skies & floral prairie she´d trip,

Before cooling forest streams she´d bend & sip.

Early one cold morn she found the she-wolf dead,

With two dead puppies & a bullet through her head,

She touched the soft silver fur with tears in her eyes,

Cursing the white men’s guns, then she heard the cries.

Under his mum, bundle of fluff, still alive but alone,

In her shawl, she took the little wolf back to her home,

Where she cared for him & taught him how to be wild,

Wandering prairies together, wolf & little Indian child.

Together they hunted for herbs & birds of fine feather,

They grew up strong into adulthood & always together,

She shared with wolf her secrets, to human never told,

And he taught her when to be meek & when to be bold.

The grey wolf aged fast & the child became an old dear,

Warming old bones in the Arizona sun, wolf´s end so near,

Together they had walked through the paths of life´s map,

And the old grey wolf died with his head on her soft sad lap.

She danced to the sun, wailed in the wind & raved at the rain,

Pleading with them to ease her unending & sorry aching pain,

Hearing on that haunting night, in the wind of summer´s June,

Wolf´s howling, “I´ll wait for you on the other side of the moon”.