How I Love You

RED HAWK

HOW I LOVE YOU

It has just rained.

Humps gleam in the sun.

Dung steams.

The prairie is all buffalo for miles

and the great herd is uneasy.

Their pawing causes the ground to tremble

20 miles to the east in Topeka.

His huge head sharply up,

a great bull stands over his calving mate

at a distance from the rest of the herd.

As wind whispers in the prairie grass

he nuzzles his mate's belly softly,

his wet nostrils flaring.

The wind carries wolf.

Raising his head

he makes the slightest shift

surely and without hesitation;

a decision to sacrifice.

Flank shivers spread for miles like waves

across an ocean of wet fur.

The bulls move to the edge of a forming circle.

Suddenly

there are the wolves,

dozens of them,

clearing the first slight rise,

their bared teeth sprouting in the sun like ivory knives.

At that instant they see the great lone bull

moving in front of his mate

and they know what they are in for.

They almost stop.