Trying to Believe / We Are Endangered
By Rodney Jones
I go inside the wolf
9:35 Sunday morning
Inside my beastly stinking
I kneel and light
A candle for snow
On the website
Churchoftheend.org
Late Monday stuck in traffic
I stick also to the wolf
Like Teaberry gum
Glommed to the sole of a boot
Marked down in the Goodwill
Or ice clinging to a leaf
Three million years ago
Though I am not famished
Nor does my fur bristle
Tuesday I go inside the wolf
Following standard sheep
Of no particular breed
Maybe old testament sheep
Maybe apocalyptic statistics
How large my teeth and ears
How wild my panting Wednesday
When I put on the head
And stare out of the wolf
The Krewe of Oak jerks
And turns the corner
From Oak onto Carrollton
Hello fossils Hello Thursday
That smells like money
Hello American elm Hello dodo
Hello polar bear snoozing in a sauna
I hear inside the wolf
The Carborundum of coal drills
Resonating from glaciers
On Friday I write Wolf Hell
On the bank I write it in wolf blood
To make (myself) believe
The condition is critical
I donate my body to science
To synch with the wolf
And spare the cost of the funeral
Saturday crossing the causeway
Seeing three boys on skis
And sometimes in the sky
The letters of an ad or proposal
I am happy to be a rich animal driving
There is a great storm coming
I go inside the wolf
Source: Poetry (February 2020)