Here’s Suzanne Burke’s “Fiction in a Flash” Challenge Week #16 Image Prompt. I was torn between this free verse poem and a tanka poem. This one narrowly won out today, but I have a feeling my tanka will make an appearance around Halloween.
CALL OF THE WILD
I hear him call me
One howl in the distance
It rolls over the frozen snow.
My reply is muted behind a barrier
I try to jump…
I try to dig…
I try to scratch…
Through the wooden prison planks.
I’m offered meals…
A small house…
A manicured lawn.
I’m cared for, yet unhappy.
My blood runs through the forest
A place where I can roam freely.
Then a bright light washes over me
The portal to heat and treats opens
I stop to mark my territory.
Holding my tail high…
I pad across the alpine tundra
And lay by the crackling fire.
Listening for the call of the wild
I drift to sleep with my favorite chew toy.
Tomorrow I will answer that call—tomorrow.
