Summary

The speaker describes a neighborhood reminiscent of childhood, with carefully kept grounds and a disused rail track. It’s there that the speaker, Little Red Cap, encounters a man she calls the wolf. He has an air of refinement, and the speaker is intrigued by his large features. She positions herself so that the wolf will notice her, and together they go into a dark and dangerous part of the woods. That first night they make love, and then she finds a white bird which the wolf devours. The speaker is excited by the wall of books the wolf has, which open new perspectives. Eventually, the speaker grows up and realizes that her relationship with the wolf has become suffocating like a mushroom growing from a corpse’s mouth. The wolf is no longer exciting, and his behavior grows repetitive. The speaker uses a...