Isabella De La Torre

Isabella De La Torre

Isabella De La Torre is a Mexican-American writer from Fresno, California. She is a MFA Poetry student at California State University, Fresno. Intrigued by the animal world, she has a passion for wildlife conservation and advocating for endangered species. Her works deal with the animal perspective and the human race’s relationship with nature. She has been previously published in hais: a literary journal and Honeyguide Literary Magazine.

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Season of the Wolves

Gray hunters are summoned

by archaic deities

The pantheon of the lupus race

delivers divine blessings in the rainfall

The pack moves under rich starlight,

where the river sings the hymns of forgotten nations

Wood spirits walk alongside the weanlings,

as the fervent howls intermingle with ancient choirs

The season of the wolves has come

Under the stone body of Mother Mountain

Besides the burnt offerings of elk carcasses

Wolves worship at the feet of bare-skinned killers,

as Wind Brother departs and weeps

Rite of the Snow Leopard

Squirming ghosts unleashed in the blizzard’s sanctum

Newborns torn from the bond of the milk-weaver

Beating hearts

History stolen

By the human hand that grips them

Traps laid under the powdered snow

Poisons crafted by the malicious fingers

of the alpine traitors

Reap the rewards of the ritual!

The cleansing of innocent Felidae souls

The desecration of spotted bodies

While the organs are still warm

Fruitful for the harvest

Euphoric to the brain