She fell back from her pack whilst the snow was still new,
She showed me her soul, I saw something I knew.

I am the loyalty, care and the love for my pack,
The warmth I can share in the cold nights of black.
I am the mother and sister and guard to protect
The heart and the home and the family perfect.

I am the scare and the scar and the snarl in the snow,
The hunt and the hound and the chasing the doe,
I am the fight to survive in a world full of fear,
But illusive, and timid, and as shy as the deer.

So I waited for her to slip into my mind,
But she padded away, leaving paw-prints behind.

I looked at him softly, placed my hands on his face,
and just for a moment, saw myself in his place.

I am the power and grace and the beauty you see,
The strength to serve you, yet the will to be free.
I am the gentleness, soft snorts and deep eyes of brown,
But the passion and prowess and pawing the ground.

I am the race and the fight and the wanting to win,
The muscle and sweat drops and glistening skin.
I am the step and the kick and the gleam and the pride,
But a bond and a boot and a stick in my stride.

I reached out to him, to bring him back home,
But he fought and he fled, so I turned tail, alone.

I heard him at first, though barely a sound,
But I saw him, I saw me, on sinister ground.

I am the caution and stillness and sniffing the air,
I am the fearing the danger that’s not even there,
I am the ‘watch where you tread’ and the silence and hush,
The always on lookout, the hardest to touch.

I am the quickness and briskness and swiftness and speed,
I am the flash of a tail and a warning to heed,
I am the bounding and leaping and steam in the woods,
The danger apparent, the fear understood.

And I felt myself crying, for as soft as the breeze,
My beautiful deer melted into the trees.

I was watching him stand in the heat and the flies,
And just for a moment, saw myself in his eyes.

I am the force and the fight and the teeth and the fear,
Whose anger’s scared thousands for thousands of years.
I am the killer, the king, my rule undisputed,
Yet somehow I see my whole kind being hunted,

I am the courage to stand and protect what I know –
My pride will get hurt or destroyed if I don’t –
I am the leader to take us all out of the darkness
But when pushed, I am by far, far from harmless.

I wished him to stay, to never move on,
But before I could welcome him in, he was gone.