Grizzly bear lay on the library floor.
Just his skin, really.
The bratty kids spilling red fruit punch on him.

He didn't like to be this way.
He shut his eyes and he dreamed back.

Back to the taxidermy shop with its formaldehyde odor
And jars of glass eyes.
A fat man with a dull knife
Ripping his flesh from his bones.

He didn't like to be this way.
He shut his eyes and he dreamed back.

Back to when he was heaped onto the cold metal pickup bed
Piled crossways on top of two dead deer
His large head flopped on a cooler of smelly fish,
Exposed to the wind and snow
For hours.

He didn't like to be this way.
He shut his eyes and he dreamed back.

Back to the moment when bullet hit bone,
When his crystal clear vision darkened.
When his mighty roar was silenced
Forever.

He didn't like to be this way.
He shut his eyes and he dreamed back.

Back to the crisp fall mornings
Standing in the river
Feasting on salmon
Tall and proud
The master of his domain.

He liked being this way.
He dreamed hard to try to stay there.

There
Apart from the others
Broken, Flawed

Beautifully imperfect

A rare find

For one perceptive enough to appreciate it

The perfect gift

Today I do not mourn
The anniversary of your death
I will embrace the day with joy
Love and smile - fully alive

The anniversary of your death
It is difficult to see you
Love and smile - fully alive
Absent pain and bitterness

It is difficult to see you
I will embrace the day with joy
Absent pain and bitterness
Today I do not mourn.

Christmas holidays
Joy, Laughter, Cheer
"Merry, Merry, Marigold," sang Mum
"Merry, Merry Mum," sang Marigold

Cheeks and nose tips
glowing bright pink
against frigid air.
Bodies at sharp upward angle
ski lift carrying them
Up Up Up

Tips slightly skyward
they slide smoothly from the lift
Marigold then Mum

Side by side
Each spies their downward course
With mighty heaves they push off

"Happy Christmas, Mum!"
"Happy Christmas Marigold"

Marigold's helmet
A disco ball
Glitter, sparkles, color
reflecting brilliant sunshine
A comet streaking downward
Screaming toward terminal velocity

Mum carves a serpentine path
A python's body in the new snow
Fresh
Natural
Tranquil

Somewhere near the top
Children hear a hideous snicker-snack
A pine bough vorpal sword
Finds its mark in someone's back

Somewhere on the mountain
Sun melted snow
And the carefree happy skier
had nowhere else to go

Her skiing day ended
Amid the trees and dirt
Her glistening glitter helmet
Crumpled
Filled with earth

Paralysis would be the happy ending,
but this is not that day
The little girl named Marigold
will never get back up to play

That's the tragic outcome
when trees meet vertebrae

Her friends gather together
Engineering an awesome little shrine
filled wth flowers, cats, and baseballs
and even a basketball-sized porcupine

Beneath a mighty pine tree
Friends embrace and say goodbye
Christmas holiday is a rotten time
For little kids to die.

Once I wrote
L’espoir, toujours l’espoir
Always have hope.

Now, I’m much less sure

Vendredi
A fall Friday evening

A football match
A rock show
A café
A restaurant
A night out
In Paris.

A suicide belt
Armed gunmen
A suicide belt
Armed gunmen
A suicide belt

People
You
Me
Mom
Uncle
Baby daughter

Killed
Killed
Blinded
Killed
Maimed
Killed

To appease
A bloodthirsty
Desert god
Allahu Akbar.

We bury
We grieve
We pray

Dieu Nos Protège
God Protect Us