Maverick Poet Award Finalist: “Wolf (for Wendy)” by Kelly Grey
Wolf (for Wendy)
Lady crawling
city streets
on all fours;
can no longer stand
in this world of oil sludge sidewalks
masked parades, daffodil rooftops.
At sixteen, you wanted
to die, snorted crystal,
peddled dope. The gray
brick school hallways
stuffed with lockers
and polished cream faces
gave you ulcers.
Your face bruised
hollow blue, you dropped acid,
smoked camels, and slept
with the men
your mother brought home;
calling them lover,
calling them dad.
No one could see
your dead grandmother
sitting by your bed
telling you stories
of wolves, red painted earth,
wild dances. No one saw
the fair-haired blue-eyed girl
that kept you alive in your dreams
telling you to wait
until you could grow
and meet in the west,
where she grew
and dreamed and waited. No one
saw the serpent,
the spiders that crawled
your floor, setting fire to your skin.
And no one noticed as your eyes
paled,
piercing gray,
when the spirit of wolf
entered your body,
giving you life.
At 20, you found
that red place
of rock
and your fair-haired,
blue-eyed twin,
whose long sun browned body
moved with the instinct
of deer. Together
you roamed the pine groves,
through mountain streams,
into dusted earth. The wolf
and the deer shared
a dance
on this crazily beaten
land; wild paws
and hooves pounding soil
in rhythm with the heartbeat
of this earth,
until their bodies
healed.
And now Lady, Wolf,
you are back
crawling the East Village,
the subways, through Central Park.
You’re crawling
beneath a full moon
you cannot see
in New York City.
But you can feel
it stealing in
past your black leather,
your smoke, your whiskey
bottled prayers. You feel
the light burning
through the dust
on your heart,
and you’re laying down
your shields now,
setting free
the wolf.
MAVERICK POET AWARD FINALIST “Wolf (for Wendy)”
Kelly Grey is a writer, poet and Ayurvedic Practitioner. She began writing as a kid and won her first award for a short story in 5th grade. As a teen her love of nature and her own personal need for healing, led her to study yoga and ayurveda, along with art and writing, and she continually weaves these threads of creativity and work together. She is currently finishing a book on ayurveda and the seasons that is infused with art, personal stories and poetry. Her poem WOLF was inspired by a dear friend she met in her early 20's. At a time when the people surrounding her didn't believe in mysticism and didn't know how to sit with pain and loss authentically, she found solace, inspiration and joy in their friendship.