Something Wild

He waited to teach you the difference between being safe and being alive...

Photo by Grégoire Bertaud on Unsplash

Something Wild

 a hunger beneath
      civilized skin
          remembers
               when survival
     was more than
          scheduled meetings
               and the terrible politeness
     that avoids saying
          what needs to be heard


listen:
     somewhere in your chest
          lives a wolf
     who waited
          through decades of
               good behavior
          to teach you
     the difference between
          being safe
               and being alive


dig your fingers into
     the earth of your self
           find  the place where
     your ancestors' rage to live
          sleeps like seeds
               under snow
          waiting for the thaw
     that will tear you
                       turn you
          into something
               wild with 
                  meaning

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Sean Downing, poet, musician, teaches high school English and Theater Arts in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He can often be found in his woodshop, coaxing music from odd scraps of junk, or haunting the trout streams around southwest Colorado. If you see him, don't tell anyone: they're probably looking to get an honest day's work out of him.

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