Intrusion by Penelope Moffet

Intrusion

When the wolf took the deer
outside the cabin by the lake,
half-waking she thought she heard
people frolicking outside,
a woman’s laughter.
Her dog barked wildly,
would not be stilled,
but then her dog barked
at everything.
In and out of dreams
until her husband came back,
saw the black wolf
watching in long grass.
He took the deer away
so the wolf would leave
and no bear come.
If they were home
he might have claimed it
as his own, a winter’s-worth
of venison. The wolf just
doing what meat-eaters do,
finding prey. Still she’s haunted
that her sleeping mind
converted the attack
into rude humans
daring to intrude,
the deer’s last cry
into a woman’s pleasure.

by Penelope Moffet

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Editor’s Note: This narrative poem features a dreamlike experience that describes how the brain tries to protect the self from something traumatic, but it’s the last line that truly presses sharply home into the reader’s heart.