Spontaneous Creation for Jen JuCo's Thread - Andrew Barham

Eagle in an old snag
Sitting by his nest
Across this branch
Of the creek
That's really a small river;
Fresh bear shit on the forest floor –
The ground is frozen hard
And walking across the streams
And little ravines
On fallen over logs:
Treacherous in my wellies –
One giant old spruce tree
Suffering from Annosus root rot
Conks oozing from its butt
On one side
And one can see where the infection
Has got in through a root
Heterobasidion annosum …

It's a killer of trees,
A parasite that gets in
Through a damaged root
And works its way
Up the trunk
Until
It kills the tree:
The fungus feeds on the tree's carcass;

Red Cedar next door
As wide as a house
Gnarly branches
Thickened with hanging moss
The whole forest
A vast haunted house
Home to a big old Grizzly
That should have gone to bed for the winter by now;
But he's feeding
On the spent salmon
Lying dead in the river
Getting in a few last minute calories
To see him through
The long Winter;

I'm following the bear unknowingly
Trying to burn off
A few calories
When I see that pile
Too fresh and unfrozen
To have been deposited yesterday;

The bear is moving away from me
Avoiding this wayward human
Wandering in his territory
So I turn back –
It's a courtesy really:
Neither of us
Wants an encounter.

Andrew Barham