Poems by Diane Lechleitner
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In Memory of Wolf Number 832F
by Diane Lechleitner
Diane lives on the east shore of the Hudson River across the river from Hook Mountain and, to the north, Haverstraw Bay. During winter eagles fish from ice floes, and in summer herons roost in a nearby tidal wetland.
She sniffed for mice in April meadows
and loped through groves of aspen,
chasing elk into the trees
on the other side of Soda Butte Creek.
When winter forced the herds
to lower ground
she followed their scent across frozen lakes,
in the rugged shadows
of the Absaroka Mountains,
turning in circles on icy nights
to burrow in the snow.
And when she covered her last distance,
east, to the Clarkâs Fork Drainage,
she may have quickened her pace
at the vague whiff of men
and sound of snapping twigs,
moments before the wind blew gunsmoke.
© Diane Lechleitner