She-Wolf Dreams of Romulus & Remus

Always a whir & a click at the start of it. Always
at each new origin, a crime: mirror the roe deer’s

rolling eye, the berry-colored flesh that makes
the milk that feeds you. Always a bloody

cloud bearing down on a grass-braided hill;
always a wide red wail when the furrow meets

the plow. When I sleep, my forepaws run
without me, a shadow unstitched from its howl;

pre-dawn sidles up like a pack of something hungry.
            Child, what wild voice

are you waiting for? One: plow the furrow. Two: kill
your brother. Three: build the wall.

Dig Spring out of the tart March earth,
whether She lets you or not.

Kate DeBolt holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and teaches tenth grade literacy and special education full time. She is an assistant editor at the Four Way Review. This season she is in receipt of a writing residency at Wildacres Retreat, and has work forthcoming from The Adroit Journal. She lives in Manhattan and works in the Bronx, just a short shame-filled walk away from the best cannoli she’s ever had.