The Lone Wolf - The Sunday Ode

By Manu Gunasena

The owl's hoot resounds
this remorseless night;
And the black bat wings
its purposeless flight;
And as the fierce tempest
restless growls,
The lone wolf
for his heartless mate howls.

The night hangs heavy
and the sole moon's vanished;
In heavenly spheres
burn dead stars vanquished;
In lightning's lash,
the thunderous crack groans;
Whilst the lone wolf
for his lost mate mourns.

The birds are nested, heavenly blest;
the beasts asleep at its best;
But tonight the world awakes astir
in swirling mass unrest;
With collated dreams
the stilled night dilate,
In the tempest, the lone wolf
awaits his dreadful fate.

Now the owl's eerie woeful hoot
and the blind bat's fretful flight
Cease to sound or flutter
in the sorry black windless night;
And though the moonless world is dark,
shrouded in dark despair
Still with hope, the lone wolf waits
his mate in his lonely lair.

Throughout its solitary life
did the lone wolf steadfast prey;
Stalking the only love it had,
the love it never did betray;
'N within its foolish wolfish heart,
in anguish selfless pray;
To see love reborn, love long bemoaned,
in its own sole wolfish lay.

Now it bestirs and hazily glimpses
upon the snow capped mount;
The alluring vision that loom afore
showing love's glorious fount;
But alas, it's to no avail,
for the false mirage belies
And the lone wolf in its lonely den,
heartbroken, lies and dies.

It dies dreaming breathless dreams
it once in love beheld;
Love's furious star that shined,
the star that vainless bled;
And wondering why, in its last few hours,
stoic hopes fled awry
The lone wolf, in lost love's tomb,
bids its' love goodbye.

With silenced howls, the bat and owl
from blackened night emerge;
To creak and hoot in solemn grief,
the wolf's sad soulful dirge;
And, in their ghostly requiem,
they pray their mass would purge;
The lone dead wolf's sorrow stained soul,
sorrow which never ceased surge.

And then the she wolf, from her snow capped mount,
softly steeps descend;
To mourn her loss in silent tears;
and then swiftly the steeps ascend;
Her snowy mount 'bode, once more alone,
from whence she first appeared
Grieving the love the lone wolf held,
love with the wolf disappeared.