The Wolf in the Trailer
WRITTEN BY SAARA MYRENE RAAPPANA
The wolf in the trailer,
tired of drinking every meal, licked the last bowl
’til it was dry and fled into the darkened woods
because she couldn’t stand it here
(lamplight like snakes biting her eyes)
but soon returned because forest at daybreak fills
itself with such undimmability.
Panting with the kind of pain that makes
people forget which lie they told themselves,
she moves from chair to chair as if a ray
were chasing her (her feet crack scattered dishes like
they’re chipmunk bones). The paramedics, when
they force the door, will find her curled as if
in sideways prayer, head resting in a spot
of dawn so clear that they’ll mistake her fur
for hair. One man will crouch and touch two fingertips
below her ear to prove no sun beats there.
tired of drinking every meal, licked the last bowl
’til it was dry and fled into the darkened woods
because she couldn’t stand it here
(lamplight like snakes biting her eyes)
but soon returned because forest at daybreak fills
itself with such undimmability.
Panting with the kind of pain that makes
people forget which lie they told themselves,
she moves from chair to chair as if a ray
were chasing her (her feet crack scattered dishes like
they’re chipmunk bones). The paramedics, when
they force the door, will find her curled as if
in sideways prayer, head resting in a spot
of dawn so clear that they’ll mistake her fur
for hair. One man will crouch and touch two fingertips
below her ear to prove no sun beats there.
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I think the obvious thing to start with, in this poem, is the extended metaphor. There isn't a literal wolf in this trailer: "head resting in a spot / of dawn so clear that they'll mistake her fur / for hair." They will mistake her "fur for hair" because it is hair. But really isn't hair and fur the same thing? Anyway...the "wolf" is a woman, one that is hardened by alcohol, abuse, pain, and the darkness of her situation. She keeps returning, coming back to the trailer night after night because...well because she does. That is what is expected of her. In the turn of this poem, the paramedics arrive, but at that point it is too late. I believe that when Raappana states that "One man will crouch and touch two fingertips / below her ear to prove no sun beats there." that the wolf/woman is dead. She should have escaped and run free, but in the end the abuse of this trailer did her in. It is a sad ending. Often we think that these poor people will rise and get out of their current situations, but sometimes people just aren't strong enough to fight against the status quo.
My absolute favorite line is "lamplight like snakes biting her eyes." The imagery in this line is strange and beautiful, which you know I enjoy.
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