On the wooded slopes
above the village
the pack is on the move.

It is a silent brown blur
from this distance
but we all see something.

A mother ushers
her brood inside the nearest shelter.
The town drunk cries out,
then crosses himself
before stumbling away.

This is not the first time.
Nor will it be the last.
Yet what they are,
where they come from,
where they go to,
is the mystery
that stirs the tavern bluster,
guides the pastor’s trembling pen
as he works on his next sermon,
and is hushed by the elders
when the young speak of it.

Why they do they run?
And why set their course
though our forest?
And why through our heads
even when we look away?

The bright round ball
in the sky may be the answer.
It is their moon.
They’re under orders of its rise.

Meet the Author:

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, City Brink and Tenth Muse. Latest books, “Subject Matters”,” Between Two Fires” and “Covert” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Paterson Literary Review, Amazing Stories and Cantos.