First in a series of poems based on a retelling of the classic werewolf story, or is it…

Don't Talk To Strangers
by Michael Doyle

Mama said don't talk to strangers
You're never out of danger
When you live on the edge of darkness

But, there is that something charming
That is nearly always too disarming
In the eyes of the most dangerous strangers

Like a nearly, neatly sprung trap
That lays out like its own innocuous map
Providing directions we never heed

Blood bleeds its own measure of purity
Half hidden as it is in uncertainty
Calling to us to break the meaningless rules

Proven as it is in the running away
To that some other place where we make our own day
This is the proof of our hearts

The wolf comes to call
As the night silently starts to fall
Death, it seems, comes for us all

(c) July 3, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved