By Meghan Harrison

 

We like to imagine bears eating honey. They hunt⁠
salmon. They forage and gather

from the Earth’s fruit and tear at the flesh
of deer. They slumber through frozen⁠ winters. They dance

in rushing rivers.⁠ They ache to save
their babies, claws reaching and teeth

bared,⁠ the weight crushing⁠ ⁠just as heavy
and sweet and sticky on their thick wild hearts⁠

as on our own. ⁠