On Being Mauled by a Bear

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Last winter

The bears came down

Below the snow line.

They were hungry.

Word got out that they were four,

A she-bear with cubs.


What went through these women’s minds

when the bear lunged at their face.

They also had a right to go about their business.

I wonder.

Astonished.

I ask myself if I would be brave.


One who lived is a friend of my cook’s wife.

She was up at the well early

To pump water for the day.

She claimed to have put up a fight.

The village was proud.

The strong survival reflex of these mountains.


The Tibetan woman on the kora was not so lucky.

The Dalai Lama should have sent a representative to her cremation.

Her holy work was his.

The bears are back up in the mountains where they should be

Now we just contend with rain and flooding.


Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.

Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening..Psalm 104

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