Kenosis

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Mid-January, & the bear
who hasn’t had
a meal in two
months, & won’t for
another three, half-
wakes to chew
sticks into soft
chips—bedding
for the cubs who
will soon be born
& squall
& nurse.
She may leave the den
to eat snow or merely
dream of it.
Her heart beats
eight times a minute.
But from the fastness
of her dark
unhungering body
milk will flow.


I’m indebted to a blog post from the North American Bear Center, “Lily Makes Bedding,” for the detail about chewing sticks — which sounds as if it was new discovery for the researchers. (The bear in the poem is on more of a Pennsylvania hibernating schedule, however.)

About Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta (bio) crowd-sources his problems by following his gut, which he shares with 100 trillion of his closest microbial friends — a close-knit, symbiotic community comprising several thousand species of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.
Posted in Poems & poem-like things | Tagged | Spot a typo? Please let us know

6 Responses to Kenosis

  2. Jean says:
    January 11, 2013 at 5:54 am

    I just love the flow and rhythm and tone of this, which are all so expressive (as well as the subject, of course).

    • Dave Bonta says:
      January 11, 2013 at 9:11 am

      Thank you, Jean. I’d kind of gotten away from enjambment for the last couple of years, but I think it works here, and I’m thinking of trying to integrate it into my poems more often from now on.

  3. lucychili says:
    January 12, 2013 at 4:04 am

    wonderful. both the creature and the words. thanks j

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