Paw Prints

“Paw Prints”

Around the trail, up the cliff, down the slope,
Sliding through snow,
Watch the little bear go.
“Papa bear,” she says in Bearish,
“Punch a hole in the ice please,
Catch me a fish.”
She growls and murmurs, sniffing the prints
That her papa bear left in the wet March snow.
Mama is worried. Where did Pa go?
She left drowsy mama asleep in the den.
It was early for Pa to wake up again
While the March snow was still on the ground…
Abruptly she’s stunned with a crashing sound —
With a rush down a slope there is snow all around
And there in the midst of the small avalanche
She hears a small sad whine and thinks there’s a chance
It is him — and she digs in the snow with her paws
Till she sees his big head and he joins with his claws
And digs himself free after a tired long pause.
There are two sets of prints heading back to the den
Where dad bear and cub fall in torpor again.