stalking 
chukar partridge,
cottontop quail out
of bounds, poaching,

in a mid-winter
nosy survey where
he shouldn't
have been,

Durango
hiker buried on
the San Juan ridge,
his backpack filled with
leather hardened jerky and
junk mail,

avalanche
dog smelled
less of his jerky,
more of his rank soul,

the more
he dug, the
more he uncovered,

the ravens
were eager to
pick his bones clean,
the wolves had already
been there, canis lupus
incisors are what slay the
reprobate,

avalanche
revealed the
cause of death,
the wolf lie beside
the human carcass
with particles of karma
attached, fate intervened,
retribution feeds off disease,
the wolf died of rabies, the man 
of greed. 

Copyright 11/11/2009 Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist