When she was a young girl, she stumbled upon a cave

The cave felt safe and secure

That was a lie

And when she explored, she came upon some wolves.

And defying all odds they loved the girl.

The mother wolf loved the child, she kept her sons at bay,

But eventually to eat, the mother had to leave.

The sons played and left the child alone,

Except one.

This one asked the child if he could have a taste; just a lick,

mother never had to know,

The child refused

Then mother came back and things went back to how they were.

But every now and then a hunt was needed,

Mother had to leave,

And again and again, the son asked

"Just a taste"

Enough was enough

the child said yes.

Just a taste, that was it

but it wasn't enough, the child could see it in the wolf's eyes

The child returned home and never said a word about the wolf.

She wasn't the only child to stumble upon that cave

but as the first child grew, so did the wolf

Mother left him alone more often,

So when the children stumbled upon the cave they were no longer met by the mother but by the son.

He convinced each one to give him "just a taste"

He pushed, applied pressure,

until they gave.

Child after child stumbled upon the cave and the wolf,

Child after child was hurt,

Then came the hunters looking for the wolf,

They had a list of children claiming he was the Big Bad Wolf of fairy tales

They tracked him

and they tried him

They locked him away.

But the wolf was still young and after awhile

the hunters thought he had changed,

Again and again they made this mistake,

And again and again, he took just a taste

Stories of the wolf were heard by that first little girl,

and she broke,

the tears feel down and she cried,

She cried and cried,

The wolf had been friendly and it was just a taste;

but one taste was never enough.

I regret being that little girl.

I regret not saying a word, and not being the only one,

I don't know if I was the first, but I certainly wasn't the last.

A place where I was safe, didn't stay that way

The wolf struck again and again,

And the little girl never said anything because she didn't know

Instead she sat across the table at Thanksgiving and passed the peas

to the Wolf.