Dante's Heart
Kathy Ayres
alphas


once
a brown-eyed
doe she’d feed in
tall grasses, hide
in shadows to
suckle her fawn
now
a pile of
roadside bones

once wolves roamed here
alpha predators
sharp teeth
muscled jaws
clean kills
those wolves
but they’ve
gone

new alphas prowl
swift sharp heavy
lacking
the grace of wolves
they snap bones
mash skulls flatten entrails
invented alphas with proper names
– Jeep  Honda  Chevy