Some poems arrive quietly.
They don’t demand attention. They don’t shout. They simply sit beside you until you’re ready to hear them.
The Wolf Within was one of those poems.
People often think wolves represent anger, aggression, or danger. That isn’t what this poem is about.
For me, the wolf represents something much quieter.
It represents instinct.
For years I ignored mine.
Like many survivors of abuse and manipulation, I learned to explain away red flags. I trusted too easily. I stayed when I should have left. I believed words instead of actions.
Eventually something changed.
Not overnight. Not dramatically.
Little by little, I stopped reacting to everything around me and started observing instead.
That is the wolf.
She doesn’t rush.
She watches.
She remembers.
She learns.
One of my favourite lines in the poem is:
“The wolf saw it all. She said nothing. Just remembered.”
Memory is powerful.
Not to keep us trapped in the past, but to stop us repeating it.
Life teaches us. But when you’re forced to learn those lessons at a young age, they can be traumatic and deeply damaging. They shape the way you see the world, the way you trust, and sometimes the way you survive.
The wolf doesn’t live in fear.
She lives in awareness.
She understands that experience teaches us things we should never have had to learn, but once we’ve learned them, we don’t have to ignore them ever again.
Towards the end of the poem I wrote:
“I don’t react anymore. I assess.”
That line probably sums up where I am in my life more than any other.
People sometimes mistake calmness for weakness.
It isn’t.
Sometimes silence is strength.
Sometimes walking away is strength.
Sometimes simply watching tells you everything you need to know.
The wolf isn’t there to attack everyone she meets.
She’s there to decide who deserves to come close.
Perhaps that’s what healing looks like.
Not becoming fearless.
Becoming wiser.
Learning that instinct is there for a reason.
Learning to trust yourself again.
Maybe we all carry a wolf inside us.
Some of us are simply still learning to hear her.
Thank you for reading
Your DislexicPoet 🖤
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