Captive Wolf Poem by Luna McLane

The wolf sits alone in a cage, his rage building and swelling within.
As the day slowly goes by, his soul slowly dies.
How he wishes to break out of his chains and be free, but he knows that it will never be.
So everyday, while waiting for his grave, he sits and sings mournful songs.
People hear his howling, and they take quite a notice of his growling, but they know not what it means.
He bares his teeth and lashes out at the bars of his cage while his yellow eyes flame with rage.

One day, the sky rainy and the clouds grey, a little child walks over to his cage and howls.
The wolf turns around and stares at the child, his golden eyes filled with wild pain.
The child howls again and sticks his hand into the cage, and the wolf bares his fangs.
The parents of the child see and quickly swarm the child like a hive of bees, and they pull him away from the bars and back into the car that sits only a few meters away from the cage.
As they drive away the wolf resumes his day of sleeping, growling, and crying out in loneliness to the moon.

Five years pass and the wolf still sits all alone in his roadside cage, his rage now gone and replaced with an unremovable gloom.
Tears stream down his face, and he bites and tears into his forearm as blood streams out like silk lace.
He is so miserable that his howls are only weak and pitiful now, not the strong primal sound that it used to be.
His fur sits dirty and ungroomed, and his gums and lips cracked from lack of water and food.
Every day he dreams of the forest and trees, but he wakes to find it was only a dream.

One night, long after his captors had gone to bed, a human in a hoodie and mask approaches and unlatches his cage.
'Go, now! Make your ancestors proud! ' the human tells him.
The wolf sits shocked and stunned, for he never thought this day would come.
The human picks up a stick and hits the back of the cage with it, and screams at the wolf to run.
The wolf, now startled, snarls and dashes out of his cage.
He runs and runs until his legs are done and give out underneath him.
He looks around and his heart begins to pound.
The forest surrounds him and for the first time he is free.

The wolf's spirit returns to him and rips apart the gloom and grim that in his heart used to be.
He took his chance to run, and now his misery is done.
He ran away into the night, wild and free.