When I close my eyes, you are there,
You glance at me, and back I stare,
Your visage has the heavens rendered,
You reflect the stars’ salient splendor.

When I listen closely, you are there,
Your voice comes to me, soft and fair,
You whisper towards my sleeping ear,
To tell me of your devotion dear.

When I am still, you are there,
To run your fingers through my hair,
To touch my cheek and hold my hand,
And embrace the reverence of your man.

When I lay alone, you are there,
In sight and sound and touching care,
With the comfort of your love seeds sown,
And the knowledge that I am not alone.

I was raised by wolves in the wilderness of Virginia. I was separated from my humanly parents during a journey across the desert plains of Fairfax in a covered wagon. Wolves attacked our wagon, and my parents threw me out to keep them at bay. Before the wolves devoured the entire length of my left leg, I learned their language and pleaded to their leader, Woof Wolf. I told him that, if he spared my life, I would learn the ways of the wolf and eventually become a brother to them. Woof Wolf agreed and told his followers to take my head out of their mouths and give me back my wallet. In time, I learned to blend in with the wolves (albeit with three less legs than they). I learned to hunt and to fish and to knit wool sweaters. I took a young female wolf as my wife, and together we spawned a race of man-wolfs, who later found success in low-budget horror movies and traveling circuses. One day, Woof Wolf came to me as I bathed and reminded me of my promise to him and his people. He said it was time for me to make good on my promises. He said I was a good looking man, and he was jealous of my wolf wife. When I told him I didn’t “swing that way,” he banished me from his kingdom and told me to hop back to my people on my one good leg. He teased me and challenged me to make a living in the world of humans. He said that no one would hire a “one-legged wolf boy.” But little did he know of the humans’ wondrous magic of prosthetics, or of their affirmative action policies, which enabled me to find employment and acceptance in the offices of GTSI in Chantilly, Virginia. Since that day, I’ve sworn to one day return to the wolfen lands of Virginia to reclaim what is rightfully mine and to find comfort in the paws of my estranged wolfen wife.