checked-off?

 

from the threadbare to the black bear

the forest in early fall has a threadbare look to it,

the structure beneath worn and showing,

the warm layers of billowing green have felt winter coming,

yellow starts to spread, like gray hair on a person,

and the leaf cover thins, leaves start to fall

and cover parts of the trail like senior moments,

loss not there completely, but tinging us with what’s coming,

even the naked white oak acorns on the trail

express their bounty as if honoring the sun,

late morning we hike hard halfway up the valley

in hopes to watch wild bears feast on the extravagance 

the oaks gives to the future of the forest,

for half an hour we stop and watch one yearling

forage at the side of the road,

finding one meal out of the many he needs,

above him on the hill, we enjoy some big bears

climb the lower trunks of large trees,

2-3 cubs hope to follow them up,

though often not knowing which tree mama went up,

straight up above us, a large bear hovers precariously

near the top of a white oak,

pulling branches down to where she can get at them,

missed acorns lance through the foliage

to find the ground and sometimes the parked truck,

its driver comes up here every year to savor the bears’ world,

cars on the road slow down into a bear jam,

the slowdown grows to maybe a quarter of a mile

of excited people, ensconced in the cabs 

of their fossil-fueled vehicles,

eagerly snapping and videoing their intersection 

with a world in which humans only count 

as minor annoyance to the bears,

the smart phones in the vehicles seem as ubiquitous as the acorns,

every person I saw sought to hold these moments

on the screen and in the memory our electronics provide,

how much they are touched personally I do not know,

I cannot decide whether I am thrilled

that two worlds intersect for a few minutes

or whether I am shocked again

by how little our species really “gets it,”

are these bears a gateway into ecological awareness

or just things to be checked-off

on a must-do list of sensations to have?

by Henry H. Walker

October 1, ‘21