A Bear and Trouble
it’s one thing to know a story
from hundreds of miles away,
it’s another thing entirely
to be in the living room
with Trouble at the door,
an opportunistic bear works to open the storm door
and works to reprise his then pushing open the wooden door
as he did almost exactly two days before
he gave the house time to replenish the garbage and cashews
he indulged in before,
I pushed back at the door
“Hold, Door!”
my son ran the new bolt home
to secure even better the safety of our home,
the bear gave up reluctantly,
and followed whim and nose to where several hours before,
the Tennessee Wildlife folks had baited a cage for him,
pieces of doughnut spread and raspberry syrup sprayed,
he ate the pastry outside the cage
and spent long minutes stalking the cage,
where deep inside it
his hunger knew treats waited,
he circled the cage, climbed on top of it,
approached the open entrance
and shied away to avoid going in,
we could see him struggle with the dilemma:
food was there and he wanted it,
but he dithered, feinted one way,
then the other, dithered again,
then, as if he committed fully,
like a person going into cold water,
the solution made, action chosen,
and he almost marched straight into the maw,
a few moments later he grabbed the bag of donuts,
his actions tripping the heavy steel door to slam shut behind him,
we watched him eat the last of the Judas pastries,
and he raged against the unyielding mesh
his great jaws wanting to find a way out
I kept fixating on the large size of his tooth revealed,
soon the Wildlife Resource folks
drove the cage away, with Trouble in it,
I cried, for this bear doomed itself
by entering a human home,
and I share in the owning of his execution,
I love bears and want them to live free,
I even planted Chinese chestnut trees 60 years ago
to restore a little bit of what the blight denies the bear,
the safety of my grandchild trumps the bear’s right
to follow his hunger into a house.
by Henry H. Walker
6/23/24
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