Hi All,

This is an image I created to accompany the following poem. Beware, it's quite lengthy and also a bit macabre at the end but should you read it, I hope you like it! :) Have a pleasant day. R

The Wolf and I ('Attagirl!')

I.
For three nights and for two days we
Warily watched each other. She
Was a lone wolf, I was a fool
Resigned to our fates, grim and cruel-
Death from hunger on the cold plains
Of Siberia. Within my veins,
My blood was ice; my bones, like stone,
Weighed down my flesh where I lay prone
In a field on a bed of snow,
Where my last breath, I'll draw and blow.
Helpless there I'd lain for two days,
When I spied the wolf through the haze.
Between her and me, a gap yawned
Of four score yards but a shared bond
Held us firm in each other's thrall.
We were doomed to die in the squall,
And for a meal to say goodbye,
Each wished the other first to die.

II.
For three nights and for two days we
Kept our desperate watch until she,
Out of the blue, traversed the gap!
On the third day, from a short nap,
I woke to find her by my side,
Huddling close to warm her cold hide
Which heaved sparingly. Her short breaths
Told me that of our looming deaths,
Hers was due first. We spent the night
With limbs entwined. No dread or fright
Had I but, while she soundly slept,
I a long thought-filled vigil kept
Till daybreak, which with great daring,
I welcomed because unerring
Was the grave step which next I took.
Beware, Reader! For now you'll brook
The grim tale of how my madness
Helped me perish with wild gladness.

III.
I reached for my knife and with it,
Severed my withered thumb. It split
Painlessly thanks to the frostbite
Which had since turned my left hand white.
To the wolf's nose, I held the thumb;
She gave it a look, wan and glum,
Before to my utmost delight
She licked it, and with scarce a bite,
Swallowed it whole! My fingers four
She ate that day. On the next, more
Cheer came her way as my toes went
The same way. Soon my strength was spent.
I shed blood while she stood upright.
She rallied while for my last night
On earth I primed myself. For when
Day broke, my knife I gripped again
And thrust it through my heart. I spied
Her teeth and claws before I died.
Attagirl!