I never post new poems on my website. But this piece came through me this morning, and I want to offer it up to our grieving community.
To the Bear in a Neighbor’s Tree
How quickly we become accustomed to the light,
blinking through discomfort, standing upright,
when our claws break, we fashion tools, use
them, and then just as easily put them down.We discover clumps of hair on the ground,
and see our lack of fur as a great improvement,
stamping and shivering, we like a cold wind!
When our night vision fades, we stumble a dance.Now, we have lost you too, primeval cousin,
lost the instinct that might have guided us
in shooing you back where you came from.
We can no longer smell what is on the wind.You sat all day in a tree, learning our gestures.
You waved at the crowds and considered making a speech.
When you became too much like us, we brought you down,
and hauled your massive blackness into the night.The truth is that we lost you long ago, long before
our friends loaded up their guns. Look how far
we have come! Our fingers fit the triggers.
And still we remember not to look in an animal’s eyes.I looked, and became frozen on my couch.
I blinked into the sunlight, and you were gone.
The black spot in the tree is no longer you.
It is the place that you have burned into my mind.
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Beautiful, my love.
I actually had read this earlier, before I had read the story behind it. Very poignant, and sad.
But there is something reassuring to me about humankind, when it mourns something we’ve been taught not to mourn.
Thanks, Keith. Whatever I was taught about the inferiority of animals, I unlearned in a flash looking up at this bear.
I love it – you said it for all of us.
great poem, Robert. i can’t believe it required killing, this bear. jeez.
i guess it’s boosted community in your parts and that is good. so sorry. xoxoMich
Thanks, Michelle and Kate. It has definitely brought our neighborhood closer.
This is beautiful Robert. I didn’t go and see the bear as I didn’t want to be part of the commotion. I feel somewhat connected only because of the young bear that wandered through my yard a year ago August. He was magnificent. He sauntered around with not a ounce of aggression. Ate some weeds as he mosied on through. Then effortlessly climbed 3 fences to move on. That occasion, the police were shooing him over to Villanova Rd area to get back over to Creek Rd and hopefully safe. This whole thing has saddened and sickened me.
Thanks, Liz. It has saddened me, too. But knowing how much this community cares about what happened, and wants to make sure it doesn’t have to happen again, if at all possible, has made me proud to be here.
Robert, I bumped into you yesterday while poking around on Twitter. You have a very interesting background. More importantly, you have a very interesting perspective. I like what you said about ‘unlearning’ anything about the inferiority of animals. I have a cat that is older than dirt. I was never a cat person. The cat came with the marriage, but it’s clear to me that the cat knows he’s old, knows he’s going to probably die soon and does not wish to be alone. I have ‘unlearned’ through this experience,too. As funny as this may sound, I am a better person for knowing this cat.
Your video and poem is penetrating, as all sincere expressions tend to be.
Thanks for your comments, Tony. I, too, know what it is to have become a better person because of a cat.