WOLF
I have no other
ransom money, nothing to break
or barter but my life.
—Diane di Prima
So when
you
ask for
more
I lie
down
in your
forest
full of
chance
and say
OK.
Take it
all.
I want
nothing
but your
teeth
against my
neck
and your
howl
in my
ears.
Prompt: “This poem was written for Poetry Postcard Fest 2021, in response to the image of a wolf on the front of a postcard, and lines from that year’s featured poet, Diane di Prima. It is also written in a form called the dyo, invented by Jimmy Pappas.”
—from Rattle #81, Fall 2023
Tribute to Prompt Poems
__________
Caitlin Buxbaum: “Prompts have a way of pulling poems out of me, like the needle that pushes a splinter from the skin; the further the prompt is from the ideas I most need to express, the more likely it is to get those words on paper. I don’t know if any of that makes sense.” (web)
