Matthew Nienow: Route of Wolves
I was not ten years old
but it felt like ten years
had been taken
from my body
at the sight
of the apparition
ten years between us
or fifteen feet
a proximity not to fool with
my body hardly
moved my mind
hardly moved the wolf
moved closer
and one body
length less
pushed the air
from my lungs
and all the sound
did was make it turn
and with purpose
but not speed
walk away from me
the fool I was
with my ten years back
I followed it then
away from the road
and into darkness
trees blocking sun
paw-prints dull
depressions in the snow
the track came upon
a clearing where
many tracks converged
I heard a call then several
the fool I was
to follow them
Lunch with the Devil
of old rooster thickened with roux,
the older the bird, he says, the richer
the sauce. He plucks the bouquet garni
dripping with the sweet juice,
drops it on a small dish and licks
his fingers, which are delicate
instruments, plump, but agile,
calloused, but smooth. He raises
his Burgundy and when our glasses
meet, the sound could mean nothing
other than eat! Do not be shy
and so I am not shy and ask
how it felt to burn his paintings
just to keep warm, how his father’s
face looked when he realized
his son had surpassed him,
but he only smiles and drinks
more wine, sucking at the bones
before dropping them back
in the stew, sopping up the sauce
with a crust of bread, his hands
working over the bowl with precision.
When the bill comes he flips it over
and reaches into his coat, saying,
let me, they will not take my money here
I put up a little fuss for show,
but watch closely as he writes
the check, businesslike, and begins
sketching the maître d’ on the back.
For ten minutes we sit in near silence
while the man appears on the page,
until he looks up and says, tell me
this drawing isn’t worth more than our lunch.
I look away because I don’t know
and I wouldn’t tell him if I did.
MATTHEW NIENOW is the author of two chapbooks: The Smallest Working Pieces (2009) and Two Sides of the Same Thing (2007). New work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets, Indiana Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Foundation, and Seattle’s leading arts organization, 4Culture. He holds an MFA from the University of Washington and is currently attending the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
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