I feel like a human raised by wolves
Then brought into captivity
And forced to learn English.

But then after so many years of trying to live this way,
I find that you,
(And I don't know how)
But you speak Wolf,
And you speak it beautifully.

And I respond from a place
I'd forgotten I had--
A deep place
Beyond my precognition,

Back to the strange milk
That nourished me
And the mother tongue.

The various breathings I understand,
The panting, the huffing,
The smallest of sighs,
The grunts and groans imperceptible to human ears,

The rhythm of the feet,
And the song of the howl, the growl, the bark, and the low whine,
The purr.

Were you raised by wolves, too?
Or , how else did you learn to speak as a native?

-jenn