Mononoke
The boy says I am not a wolf
despite the keenness of my teeth,
despite the blood I licked from my sister’s wound,
despite the nights I have prowled this forest.
The boy says I am human
despite the howling in my heart,
despite the thirst for my next kill,
despite the goddess who raised me.
The boy says he loves me
and I am human and not a wolf
because he cannot hear the music of the moon,
because he cannot heed a warning.
Kristina Diprose is a writer and social researcher living in Saltaire. Her last major research project (Climate Change, Consumption and Intergenerational Justice: Lived Experiences in China, Uganda and the UK, Bristol University Press 2019) sparked an interest in climate change ethics and ecofeminism that is reflected in her recent poetry.
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