The news can be troubling and sometimes disturbing.
For poets it can be a source of inspiration. To help process the stories in our news feeds, we invite poets to write an original piece inspired by a KUOW story for #NewsPoet.
Today we hear from West Seattle-based poet Katy Ellis. Her poem was inspired by the death of Charleena Lyles who was shot and killed last June by Seattle Police.
"Once Again Upon A Time"
The wolf is disguised as a thirty-year-old pregnant black woman
A litter of four pups den with her in a fourth-floor apartment
Near a lake in a gallant land known by all as the Great Pacific Northwest
Immanent summer solstice pries day from night in wide, bright sheaths
This is not a fairy tale though the wolf appears in a story the next day
Transcripts of officers afraid of the woman’s shape-shifting powers
They knew she’d brandished scissors once before in her black paws
But brave they were, two grown men holstering shiny loaded guns
Surely they could take down a wild-minded wolf half their size
And when they did her cubs emerged disguised as little children Who nose their mother’s scent, imprint her permanent sleeping curse.
