Promise Of The Bear
By g.l.bass (the ghostbear still lives)
10/25/98-1/26/05

for my brother bryon
a hunter by trade
a promise keeper by heart

Secretly out of horizon’s morning door,
Autumn,
Wind blown,
A swirling dance of spinning, spiraling
Red and purple leaf,
Spun across and over
Golden waves
Of marshland reed and cattail,
Thinly veiled,
Autumn whirls
And whispers
Her warm seductive
Promise.
Sweet secrets off the lips
Of beguiling southern breeze,
Autumn entices lovers
Who believe her promise
Of forever.

The Bear,
Head up,
Lifts his nose
Into secret southern breeze,
He senses
The scent of urgency
In the air.
There’s frost still
On forest edges,
Cold dew in the shade,
And ice film
Atop the pond.

The Bear hunts
Fat off the land.
He ignores
Autumn’s enticements,
Her Charms,
He knows,
Are but temptations,
October’s a siren,
And fall’s a fickle lover.

The Bear’s lair awaits him.
Soon,
He will sojourn there.
In hibernation’s dreams
The Bear will see
Autumn unclothed,
She will dance,
She will whirl,
But her enticements
Will not cure
The winter in
His lonely heart.

In warm fat the Bear sleeps.
His dreams of love,
Fantasy,
And Spring,
Abide with him.
He is safe.
He knows,
Beyond his dreams,
The other side
Of Autumn’s promise
Arrives in blizzard fury.
He knows,
His world lies
Buried beneath Winter’s
Frozen truths
Of ice and snow.