Prowling the Ridge

Judith Minty

Judith Minty’s first book, Lake Songs and Other Fears (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974), received the United States Award of the International Poetry Forum. She is the author of four chapbooks and five full-length poetry collections, most recently Walking with the Bear (Michigan State University Press, 2000). She has taught at several colleges and universities in the United States, but considers the North Woods of Michigan her permanent home. "Prowling the Ridge" first appeared in her book In the Presence of Mothers (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981).

You, husband, lying next to
me in our bed, growl
like a wild dog or wolf
as you travel the woods of your dream.
I feel your legs running from or after some

thing. Now you turn 

and curl from the moon.

prowl along ridges, hunt
with the pack. You rest
your paws on wild fur, bare
teeth to raw meat.

If I reach out and touch

the curve of your haunch,
brush my hand over your skin,
I can tame you

back to this room, to this wife

still outside

your blanket of sleep.

But it’s your dream
I burn for, the other
place and time.

Wolf, leave tracks now. Quick.
Let me follow your scent.