Teresa Sutton is a poet and a teacher. She teaches at Roy C. Ketcham High School and Marist College and lives in Poughkeepsie, NY. Her first chapbook, “They’re Gone,” was published in 2012 by The Finishing Line Press. Her second chapbook, "Ossory Wolves," was a finalist in the 2014 Bright Hill Press' Poetry Chapbook Competition. The Poet's Billow recognized her work as a finalist in the 2015 Pangaea Prize and a semi-finalist in the 2014 Atlantis Award. The Cultural Center of Cape Cod recognized her work as a finalist in their 2014 National Poetry Competition. Two of her poems won honorable mention in other poetry competitions: Whispering Prairie Press and California State Poetry Society. Her poems appear in a number of literary journals including Stone Canoe, Fourteen Hills, and Solstice. She earned my MFA from Solstice Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College.
A SHE-WOLF’S CANTICLE
Restore my voice, Oh Lord, that I might sing
instead of howl when I pray. Remove these wolf paws;
return my fingers so I might steeple them together,
raise them toward Heaven. Bring back my knees
that I might drop to them in reverence of You. Spare me
from nights curled up naked on damp ground
except for this wolf-suit. I beseech you, return me
to my human form. Strip off these lupine ears that detect
so many nameless sounds in the night woods. Mend these
once long legs that ran to church each day; let me
slip them beneath grandmother’s sable furs. I beg
release from the necessary blood lust of my hunger;
allow me to cook my meat, eat at a table. Above all,
I implore Thee for deliverance from wolves
that do not know that I am not one of them.