1.

In the canebrake behind the sea
where at night the crickets

become mute when we get close,
there’s a giant hand ruffling

the canes and the canes are
up again in a moment.

It’s wild boars—an entire
family, descended from the hills.

At the village they say the beasts are
confused, that the climate is

changing—but that is not
why the boars have come down here.

2.

Later, a single honey-eyed wolf has
ventured further than the

boars, past the canebrake,
onto the seashore. Lone wolves won’t

attack men, the villagers repeated.
And yet, it tore the screaming lady

‘s thigh open, before evaporating
through the canes.

They say it’s unprecedented, that
the climate is changing,

that the beasts have lost their bearing.
And yet I know—

that is not why the lone wolf has
come down here.

– Aldo Giovannitti