Poems

Sara Miller: ‘Legend’

Legend

After the foghorn sounded, I explained
to my friend that in mating season

the giant water wolf can deliver
his lamentations across two states,

and that upon hearing these, the local
waterfowl turn together on the axis

of their floating bodies to calculate
the distance in case fleeing is required.

You and I, on the other hand, grow wistful
and fall into a kind of stupor, because the wolf

is telling us of yearnings we ourselves have known,
and as mammals we are moved by that sound,

despite its more important role as a warning,
which we won’t be heeding, of everything

we fear and will never see coming,
and this is also part of the myth.

Sara Miller

 

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