Once they came down only at darkfrom the canyons. Now they trot outbold in daylight on sunlit pavement.Still, if you move close, they vanish fastinto shadows under the freeway,blocks from the ocean. Up beyondthe flammable mansions on over-built lots, where they once burrowedsafe, gave birth to ravenous young.Now they watch under scaffoldingswinging above sliding foundations.Near the homeless tarps, scatteredfires. Wolf instinct awakes in theonce-wilderness. They’d feed at yourjugular. You mean nothing to them, youwho believed in the evolved domestic.Hunger, not love, draws your dog.The need in the gut. Each choicemade in your life sentimentalized.Like the young you fed first. Gonetoo when you return with nothingbut your worn advice on how to survive.This poem appears in the December 2025 print edition.