Home » Poems » Larry Bradfield » A Bear, a Salmon, and a Man From Santa Fe

A Bear, a Salmon, and a Man From Santa Fe

In the middle of the river stood a bear all aquiver
In anticipation of his first meal of the Spring
Just a ways away was fisher man from Santa Fe
Who had sworn to bring his wife the very same thing

There was a salmon down the stream that fit both the dreamers' dream
And she was comin' hard with a belly full of roe
Oh, she had climbed three water falls as they do when Nature calls
And she guessed she only had  a hundred yards to go

She had known the bed she sought and the price she would pay when bought
But nothin' was too much to pay in this cycle of life and death
She had been to sea a thousand leagues and lived her life in endless intrigues
As she fought with man and nature with each treasured breath

Then she saw just up ahead a tasty morsel before her bed
She had no way of knowing that the morsel was connected to the man
And she was weary and  never saw the danger of the upraised paw
She could only think of a fine meal before she laid her load in the sand

Then it was plain to see some things in Nature are meant to be
The salmon came into the bear's reach as the lure came floating by
The bear swung at the salmon's dorsal as the man yanked on the tasty morsel
And sunk the hook deep in the hungry bear's fishing paw

Silence gave way to scream as the fish hastily moved upstream
The fisherman and all his gear clumsily fell off the rock
The bear would fish no more today just find himself a place to lay
And the man from Santa Fe just swore and wrung out a sock

And so the fish had reached her bed it could have gone two ways instead
As both led to a much larger creature's dinner table
Do not discount it as a rumor for Mother Nature has a sense of humor
Both man and bear took it on the chin and the fish had babies as she was able

2-6-21
Larry Bradfield

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