Like a grey shadow lurking in the light, <br />He ventures forth along the edge of night; <br />With silent foot he scouts the coulie's rim <br />And scents the carrion awaiting him. <br />His savage eyeballs lurid with a flare <br />Seen but in unfed beasts which leave their lair <br />To wrangle with their fellows for a meal <br />Of bones ill-covered. Sets he forth to steal, <br />To search and snarl and forage hungrily; <br />A worthless prairie vagabond is he. <br />Luckless the settler's heifer which astray <br />Falls to his fangs and violence a prey; <br />Useless her blatant calling when his teeth <br />Are fast upon her quivering flank--beneath <br />His fell voracity she falls and dies <br />With inarticulate and piteous cries, <br />Unheard, unheeded in the barren waste, <br />To be devoured with savage greed and haste. <br />Up the horizon once again he prowls <br />And far across its desolation howls; <br />Sneaking and satisfied his lair he gains <br />And leaves her bones to bleach upon the plains.<br /><br />Emily Pauline Johnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-wolf/
