The new wolves come
For yet another winter
Not the usual sort of wolves
Looking more like porcupines
Covered all over with harpoons
Coming, not in packs, but hordes
Too small to see with the eye
You could say that all they want
Is to make more of them
But what can a tiny bundle
Of RNA and stuff “want”
They can’t help it
It’s their nature
Some of us, as we would
Stalked by real wolves
Take up weapons
Seek shelter
Don armor
Others defy
Like people who try
To take selfies
With wild animals
With bears, lions, tigers, wolves
They dare these wolves to bite
Or trust in some false promise
Like the foolish frog
Trusting the scorpion
So, it seems that
They too can’t help it
It’s just their nature

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

Bob Wertzler is retired from almost twenty years in the mental health field in California and Arizona. There are times the title, “Recovering Therapist”, seems to fit. In 2006 he retired to move to Western North Carolina to help and become primary care giver for his father who had developed Dementia. Before all that, there was work at various times as a soldier (US Army 1967-70), community organizer, cab driver, welfare case worker, wooden toy maker, carpenter, warehouse worker, and other things. He relates to a line in a Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip its been.”