Gary Lawless: "Treat Each Bear"

Treat each bear as the last bear.
Each wolf the last, each caribou.
Each track the last track.
Gone spoor, gone scat.
There are no more deertrails,
no more flyways.
Treat each animal as sacred,
each minute our last.
Ghost hooves. Ghost skulls.
Death rattles and
dry bones.
Each bear walking alone
in warm night air.

"Treat Each Bear" by Gary Lawless, from The Dire Elegies: 59 Poets on Endangered Species of North America, edited by Karla Linn Merrifield and Roger M. Weir. © Foothills Publishing, 2006.

Art credit: "Grizzly Bear at Sunset," photograph by © Carl Donohue Photography (originally color).