Return of the Native (Poetry)

Notorious villain of fable and fairytale,
prowling at twilight - a devil in fur -
yellow-eyed evil lurks deep in the shadows,
ferocious and rabid - a slavering cur

still haunting dark forests of man's superstitions
with nightmarish legends that chill to the bone,
when fantasy conjured a false reputation
and fashioned a werewolf from forces unknown.

No matter the evidence shows that the species,
for so long detested, is misunderstood -
the vote has been cast and the verdict's still guilty -
a child-eating demon hunts wild in the wood...

No welcome will greet his return to the Highlands,
where hate and suspicion once drove out his kind,
and little has altered the tide of opinion -
old prejudice lingers, relentless and blind

while deer strip plantations and breed in profusion,
(their natural predator chased from the scene)
the Grey Wolf is waiting, his role beneficial,
his character wiped ecologically clean.

Silvered by moonlight, the pine forests shiver,
stars flash their secrets reflected in streams
as, in the far distance, a howl breaks the silence,
unsettling sleep with lycanthropic dreams.