Ashley Faulkner
Wilded
She mourned him each evening, the photographs turned
down to the mantelpiece, pulling blinds to the darkness
through which he had vanished, failing to return at dawn.
Still making food for him each evening, she placed it
next to an opened door, knowing it would not be eaten,
scraping it for the birds next morning. Once, after dusk,
she had heard a noise from the pantry, and hurried there
to watch the departure of a thick shadow: calling his name,
receiving no answer. Now there were no more early dashes
over the wide fields, exuberantly leaping streams, his head
inclined to make sure she was following, noises of delight
mounting from his throat. At bed-time she crouched, silent
between the food and the door, listening to the call of owls
and wondering whether he watched; as she began the ritual
of the despondent widow, touching his food, discovering it
to be utterly cold--questioning if she would sight him again,
that beautiful moment when he would rise from the thickets,
trailing exhaustedly with both feet until she caught his fall.
Page(s) 151
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