Poetry by Tianna G. Hansen: cold as steel

18 Nov, 2019

cold as steel

“Bright is the moon high in starlight
Chill in the air cold as steel tonight”

~ Metallica, ‘Of Wolf and Man’

the night I go to him, the air holds a chill
reaching deep beneath my fur, cold as steel
the moon shines high above, full-bellied.

Out from the new day’s mist
I have come

I want him to see me for who I am, the wolf
not the woman. crouch outside his house
hidden among the pines, light flickering

inside his workshop. even in the dead of night
he whittles away at his wolfen figures.
I want him to carve me, watch his hands

shift / pulsing with
the earth

mold my body out of wood, imagine his fingers
running along my curves, jolts of electricity.
how he smooths me out, scrapes deep into

the marrow of me, harnesses my wild beauty.
I creep closer to the shed, ears pricked for
a sense of movement, on alert.

(shape shift)
nose to the wind

there is something, a smell in the air
a low rack of a shotgun being pumped
he stands in the door of his woodshed

points the gun between my eyes
dead-shot, aims his weapon with steady
hands, those fingers I’ve admired.

call of the wild
fear in your eyes

he moves to grip the trigger
moonlight bathing us / first sight
I lunge, tackle him to the ground

rush of breath tickles the hair on my
neck as we fall, roll together hard;
he begs & whines. I make him silent.

back to the meaning
of wolf & man

The italics in this poem are quotes from the Metallica song, Of Wolf and Man, which is provided below for reference.