Page 84 of The Wolf and His King

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I can smell her lies from here

(they will not let me closer)

he hears them too. he listens

to his knight in green, trusted tongue,

who tells a different story

I always felt he saw something real in me

what he sees is hard to know,

but the way they stare – it loosens the wolf-skin and

for a swift second of something that tastes like hope

my body almost remembers who I am but

perhaps the hunt still singing in our blood

is what keeps us wolf, binds us wolf.

if I can feel this aching wrongness and not change

then I am bound to be wolf forever

bound to this skin this form this grief

and I want to

HOWL

the desolate rage of it at the sky

the bonds are tied too tightly for that,

muzzled like an animal

–I bit her I tore her nose from her face

HUNT

what manner of monster am I? –

a hunter who could not face the kill.

she deserves that death

if I were myself I would know that

and the knight says

‘the wolf is bisclavret’

with clear eyes that cleave through illusion,

tear away cobwebs of lies.