A Yellowstone Haiku

Winter gray hides sun

Pewter skies too cold to snow

Snow lies everywhere

Two days spent on scout

Watch sky for black raven shape

Third morning lucky

Gray wolf lopes through snow

Stops on white hillside nervous

Black shapes congregate

Wolf watches watchers

Breath gleams white against gray land

Black wings color snow

Undertakers' shapes

Descend on strewn red carcass

Hidden from watchers

Gray wolf stalks unsure

Toward red snow behind small rise

Nose down to read scent

Trots down draw wary

Scatters black winged breakfast club

Eagles with ravens

Takes one red mouthful

Runs again to top of rise

Scavengers return

Nose up wolf tests air

Ignores black clique on carcass

Watches watchers watch

Runs again down draw

As black shapes again retreat

Once again ignored

Wolf feeds quickly now

Scurries back to white lookout

Black wings come again

Wary wolf paws snow

Watches beyond cold watchers

Watchers read red snow

Elk kill freshly made

Too large for gray wolf alone

Killed by pack at dawn

Lone wolf wise to signs

Pack scent all around white bones

Return imminent

Lone wolves killed by pack

Black wings await next carcass

Outsiders beware

Winged ones have no fear

Flight trumps fang once snow is red

Winter's kills fuel life

Black plus white makes gray

Red on white says survival

Winter Yellowstone