Terence Degnan
the wolves came into town
walking upright on their haunches
drinking from the cups
of the regular pedestrians
howling their howls
like forgone cliches
nobody stopped them
or called animal control
because wolves
because they were walking like people
down a street that had never seen them
and some of us
thought it was a bit
the wolves looked like they were laughing
like drunk men
who don’t know what they’re doing, do
we looked bewildered
at their carousing
and only the children
played along
and howled, too
they spun up the light posts
and hung from the globes
by their claws
you should’ve seen it
to believe it
they posed beside the posters
making the same faces
the actors on them made
as best they could
with their wolffish snouts
and then they were gone
you could see them
fall back on all fours
like regular wolves do
as they exited
via the avenue
their tails, wagging
lazily in the afternoon sun
like they’d won some game
like we were their opponents
to be mocked
like how children do
Terence Degnan is the author of Still Something Rattles (Sock Monkey Press, 2016) and The Small Plot Beside the Ventriloquist’s Grave (Sock Monkey Press, 2012). His work has appeared in Prime Number Magazine, The Other Herald, and The OWS Poetry Anthology, as well as in the anthology, My Apocalypse (Sock Monkey Press, 2012). His two spoken word albums, BC (2008) and Calling Shotgun (2010) can be found on iTunes and Spotify.
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