Wolf Boy

Newspapers will sell the idea of a 

Boy who turned into a monster to death, 

They will continue to flog the dead horse. 

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Young

Boy kills family. Sad boy kills self. Boy

Cares about something other than himself.

Poetry has always found the idea

Of a monster becoming a man so 

Much more appealing. The way that his fur 

Is ripped from his skin, and his skin shed 

From his muscles that arc around the bones 

That shrivel and crack. He steps from himself 

Like a shrugged off overcoat, walks alone

Away from the woods, into the cities.

We hold our palms open for him to take.

We let him tell us his woeful story,

We ask him to stop filling his teeth down,

to stop biting his nails. He does not

Need to change himself for us any more.