Werewolf, Interrupted

Werewolf, Interrupted
By Hayley Stone

Bullets only work on the beast
afraid of pain, not the animal
already addled by bitter poison,
clasping cold silver to her chest
in an attempt to feel something
flutter inside her rib-bone cave. 

She has been circling the dark
too long to remember words.
Only a breakdown of forest
marks her passage, and howls,
howls are all she carries now,
the snarled melody of home.

Quiet now. Listen:

Every wolf welcomes an audience
without clouds to crowd the moon.
It is happening now. Happening
again—there! Can you hear her?
That ancient call of one hurt thing
to another.

* * *

Hayley Stone is an award-winning author, editor, and poet from California. Her poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Liminality, Wild Musette, and more. She is also the author of the weird western cult hit, Make Me No Grave, a finalist for the Laramie Book Awards, and the sci-fi novel, Machinations. She loves hearing from readers. Find her on Twitter @hayley_stone or on her website. 

Where do you get the ideas for your poems?
I take a lot of inspiration from mythology and folklore, which are both subjects I studied in college and continue to hold a lifelong fascination with. I especially enjoy lifting new ideas from old stories by centralizing the feminist perspectives within them that may have gone unexamined in the past.