Two Bears
by Richard Beban
Peter Wolf told how the bear
entered his lodge as he lay
fevered with smallpox. The animal sat,
back to the boy,
thick brown pelt smelling of
humus & pine, scratched
its huge furry breast. "I did not know,"
Peter Wolf said, "if I was dreaming.
The bear left, returned, repeated
the same gesture. When my father came
we talked & agreed, surely the bear
had mercy on me. After that, I worshipped
the bear, & in the dance wore anklets
of bear's teeth."
The boy next door tells of the bear he saw
while grazing channel to channel.
It caught a salmon,
swiping its huge paw into the space between
the beer commercial & the crying family
on Oprah. His mother took him to the
Disney Store, bought him a stuffed bear from
Just-So Stories, which sits with the other toys
in his closet.
