BACK
BEAR BELLS ARE TOO QUIET
tracy d. lee
Grizzlies all over the T.V.
this weekend—eating
moth fat in high up rocks
bison meat thawing in streams
occasionally camper-trash, attracting
ranger bear biologists with thumper guns.
They have numbers: bear 208
and two cubs survive
winter. Populations 500 to 600 thriving
under danger and bears hunting,
not seeking people waste.
Grant’s tame grizzlies turn wild.
State/park personnel extend females
three strikes, males two—one
if especially dangerous to humans.
People flock to Wyoming and bear attacks
diminish from 48 to less than one per year.
Epidemic building boom enclosing their territory,
cattle ranchers, my family’s been here
105 years, keeping great
grandfather’s land—encroaching
bears take down tons, they’re killing us
out there.
(c) 2008 by Tracy D. Lee