Wolf Love

                         

Into the wood she now ventures, all alone now, quietly enters

She all dressed in layers of clothing head to toe to keep her warm

Stepping gently, heard a crunching, all around she heard a munching

Like a wild pig truffle-hunting, hunting on the forest floor

“Wild hog”, she thinks and mutters, hunting on the forest floor

Cold sweat dripped from every pore

She had woken from her slumber, face all wet and fled her chamber

In pursuit of her prince, the gallant knight she did adore

Enveloped in her cloak and hood, and now entrapped in tangled wood

Then overcome with grief and sadness, sadness at the sight she saw

There her lover’s cap was lying, it was Henry’s she was sure

Lying on the forest floor

While Catherine in her frozen fear, saw a ghostly mist appear

Wrapped and trapped its tendrils round her, and yet it had a strange allure

Though she fought and started running, still the spectre kept on coming

Then she hear a grunting echo, echoes from the forest floor

Wild bear noises, echo, echo, owls hooting, charging boar

Echoes from the forest floor

There the ancient cabin stood, hidden, deep within the wood

Ill-fated lover’s meeting place, with ivy twining round its door

Catherine now with heart thump-thumping, in her veins the blood pump-pumping

Calling out for God’s protection – fearful now at what she saw

Dying wolf a-yowling, yowling, horrifying blood and gore

Lying on the forest floor

Catherine screeches out with fright, help me end this odious night

Please depart night’s darkest demons, our ravaged maiden did implore

Acrid odours whirling, swirling, telling her of something strange

All is silent, all is black, moon has fallen to the floor

Cold with fear and trembling, trembling, petrified at what she saw

Catherine crumbles to the floor

Then woefully, she realized, she recognized her lover’s eyes

Within their hut as wolf-tears fell, he tenderly stretched out a paw

And Henry yowled and yowled again, for love that could not be the same

With yellow eyes, their ghostly cries, echo, echo evermore,

The lovers now as forest wolves, entwined together on the floor

Lying on that forest floor

by Meg Marsden
(after the style of Edgar Allan Poe)