a primal need

of the bear and the wolf

there’s something primal about seeing a bear for me,

particularly at our cabin on the border of the national park,

the same with my wife, my son, my granddaughter,

and, in the past, my mother,

for some folks,  I can imagine a bear passing by

to be like seeing an exotic animal in a zoo,

an impressive moment but more 

one to be checked-off and catalogued

than one to affect you at your deepest,

I more feel the bear to be someone in the family

whose story I don’t yet know, but want to know,

or maybe I feel the bear to be, like the wolf,

a reminder of fellows who are like us,

and also potentially dangerous,

for they aren’t domesticated the way we are,

the bear and the wolf can remind us

that our civilization is but an eddy in the river,

the bear and the wolf’s moments

speak that life is far more

than the materialism of our obsessions.

Wolves, Lamar Valley, Yellowstone 7/13

by Henry H. Walker

July 6, ‘20