from EXPEDITION NOTES
[Artic Isolation 1]
The wolf’s liver is failing.
Her eyes dulled to dirty yellow.
Her back legs tremble, her
head hangs low.
She is so skinny her bones
show through but she still
enjoys the wind, lifts her nose
to everything I can’t see.
She wandered away, later
found me by the fire.
She laid her head on my hand
and we sat like that for a long time.
When I woke up she was curled
next to me under the blanket
hardened by ice. All night she
had tried to hide a bone under my hand.
Her nose raw and bleeding.
Why didn’t I wake up sooner?
This is poignant, beautiful, brief and astonishingly clearly wrought. Thank you.