Loup Garou

Some nights a shadow bends the sugar cane
...........towards the back porch, and what wind there is
.....................carries a scent that starts the dog to grumbling.

It doesn’t matter that all the locks are latched
...........and all the knives are put away. The moon
.....................has risen over the fields, and coons and treefrogs

press their bellies against cypress and keep quiet.
...........These are nights mothers warn their children
.....................to keep hands and feet over the mattress;

the Loup Garou is coming for their fingers and toes.
............It doesn’t have to come as the wolf, or fog.
.....................It could easily be the blue heron creeping

just behind the children’s cane, or the nighthawk
............razing each row for field mice. Any light-footed shape
.....................can bring it close enough to make frissons.

And nothing, not even an infant’s calm breath,
............can keep it back, until the sun climbs
.....................over the cane and burns its eyes away.

*Jack B. Bedell is an Associate Professor of English and Coordinator of creative writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature, a nationally-recognized literary journal, and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. His latest collections are What Passes for Love and At the Bonehouse, both published by Texas Review Press (a member of the Texas A&M Press Consortium) and Greatest Hits (Pudding House Press). His recent work appears in the Southern Review, Hudson Review, Connecticut Review, Paterson Literary Review, Texas Review, Southeast Review, and other journals. He and his wife Beth have two sons, Jack, Jr. and Samuel Eli, and one large Labrador, Mocha.