Bear Life

Bear sleeps in his haunt as long as bear can.
If not snow it’s thunder, lightning, and rain
keeps him there, it’s the dam bear draws him out
to run the gamut.

Not another bear
wears her fur the way he does in his love fevers.
The old man fucks the old woman, he fucks
until he sleeps with his head on her haunch.

In the hollow log, the house the bear haunts,
he turns when light illuminates his hair,
and who should be waiting where the door
would be? He thinks

this forest is his
to run and roll and paw the trunks of trees
for scratching post. Here she is young again
and he is young with her out of the rain.

Envoi: Go, bear, stay free, be all you want
once winter gives way to spring and the year
takes root. Before the fall there is summer.
Roam as is your wont.

(5 December 2011)

copyright 2011 by Floyce Alexander