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The Ice Wolves of Ur
by Janie Hofmann
In the time of the ancients
Kon and Jode-Bar would gaze
at the lightening that would cross
the sky like the eerie Fatima geese
heading south for feeding grounds
of no use to wolves.Their black fringed ears always
erect, mouths open in fiendish
grin, the medicinal scent of pine
and sage roiling in the air.
The most handsome and daring
of all the wolves in Ur, white
coats made them appear
as dashing ice angels
across the tundra
and in the dark valley
caves. Sparkling ghosts
splotching the landscape
with swoops of soft albino
fur until the day of the slaughter.Kon, noble and always without
malice, slaughtered his brother
in quest of leadership, assisted
by Jode-Bar, his faithful aid.
All of Ur in terror, not for the victim,
but for Kon. They did not
want his head nor to see
him burned, but to come back
as beloved gentle Kon.From the North, the Frits,
red-tailed and green-eyed,
swept in but only caught Jode-Bar
and he was beheaded,
his offspring burned.
Kon never knew, had banished
himself to the caves long before
the collapse. Every night he rolled
in the charcoal of the caves
to change his coat and every
morning, he was gleaming white
so that the pups would look down
into the valley of the caves
and see the flashes of soft white
in the purple blue dark.So went one of the many legends of Ur....
© Hofmann, 2007
Janie Hofmann lives and writes in Vancouver, BC and has a special love of dark fantasy. She enjoys reading, painting and traveling and loves animals. Her poems have appeared in Underground Voices, Elimae, Cerebral Catalyst and Southern Ocean Review, and she has a short story in Static Movement.