ancestor or a
bastard, fluttering
with coyotes?

The jigsaw of his being
laid in DNA by nigglers,
voyeurs of wolf behaviour and
intimates of bones, skulls,
backs, fleece texture and eyes.

The redhead (so it seemed) shot
in neighbour's woods, at random.

The chair! Gas him! Here with that needle!
howled the Wyoming Farmer's Union
the Ontario Circle of Hunting Friends
the Duluth, Minn., Bloc of Sheep Breeders
all of whose existence was riddled
with sense like a rack of clouds.

But then
in other words later and with others
our Red One suddenly came up
with the eldest patents of nobility,
who knows he was the first
Wolf American.
So it became fashionable
to be seen with a red wolf.

Meanwhile it now seems,
with the mesquite, gum-tree, balsam
those butterflies with their swallow's tail
all's not as well as it appears

Translation: 2003, Peter Nijmeijer