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    New Atwood Poem “Update on Werewolves”

    Just posted today on Literary Hub and it’s amazing and right on time–

    Update on Werewolves

    In the old days, all werewolves were male.
    They burst through their bluejean clothing
    as well as their own split skins,
    exposed themselves in parks,
    howled at the moonshine.
    Those things frat boys do.

    Went too far with the pigtail yanking—
    growled down into the pink and wriggling
    females, who cried Wee wee
    wee all the way to the bone.
    Heck, it was only flirting,
    plus a canid sense of fun:
    See Jane run!

    But now it’s different:
    No longer gender specific.
    Now it’s a global threat.

    Long-legged women sprint through ravines
    in furry warmups, a pack of kinky
    models in sado-French Vogue getups
    and airbrushed short-term memories,
    bent on no-penalties rampage.

    Look at their red-rimmed paws!
    Look at their gnashing eyeballs!
    Look at the backlit gauze
    of their full-moon subversive halos!
    Hairy all over, this belle dame,
    and it’s not a sweater.

    O freedom, freedom and power! 
    they sing as they lope over bridges,
    bums to the wind, ripping out throats
    on footpaths, pissing off brokers.

    Tomorrow they’ll be back
    in their middle-management black
    and Jimmy Choos
    with hours they can’t account for
    and first dates’ blood on the stairs.
    They’ll make some calls: Good-bye.
    It isn’t you, it’s me. I can’t say why.
    They’ll dream of sprouting tails
    at sales meetings,
    right in the audiovisuals.
    They’ll have addictive hangovers
    and ruined nails.