the bears are on a health food kick

bears eat a lot of salad

I think bears are on a health food kick in the spring,

all of June they’re somewhere 

other than the lower forests 

where we humans concentrate,

I can’t even find their scat on the trails

all over the gentle-sloped valleys,

today we find some fresh scat

right where the mountain steepens,

and when I poke and prod and examine it,

it looks like horse manure, all vegetable matter,

with maybe a few seeds in it,

like a diet worthy of a rabbit,

maybe bears have made a virtue out of a necessity,

they eat, and eat, their salad,

and next month they will have the dessert

of blackberries and cherries that ripen then,

then, just before the fasting of winter when they sleep

and burn their fat to power their dreams,

they will gorge on nuts and acorns,

to bulk up with carbs and protein,

and any fat they can finagle,

Bear Print, above Two Mile Branch Trail

now, for the bears, seems to be a time of greens,

of vitamins and minerals and fiber,

before the next courses are ready.

by Henry H. Walker

June 29, ‘15