Can a Poem Save a Bear?

Crash! Tinkle. Tinkle. The sound of broken glass cuts through the sleep-fog and reaches my brain.  A trash truck picking up? I wonder.  No, wait.  I'm camping in Yosemite and it's the middle of the night.  Can't be a trash truck.


The sounds of breaking bottles continues along with some very low pitched grunts.  "Is that a bear?" someone in the next campsite ask in a half whisper.

I slip half-way out of my sleeping bag and the cold night air hits my skin. Shock waves ripple down my spine.  Reaching for the window I unzip it to check my bear-proof locker. Did I close it all the way last night? I see nothing near our table or food storage locker.

Zipping the window closed I glance at the great blue cocoon of a sleeping bag next to me. My husband isn't moving. "There's a bear out there."  He makes some sort of grumble but doesn't move. I'm already one ahead of him on the bear sightings count and I thought he might want to see this one.

More glass-breaking sounds. Lights are coming on in nearby campsites. I move to the other side of our tent - now I'm completely out of my sleeping bag and cold. I unzip the door a little and stick my head out. The lights are at the next campsite and I see the black shape of a huge bear with his head in a cooler. He's right next to a pickup camper. The door of the camper opens, hits the bear and slams shut. "There's a bear out there!" a man yells. People from another campsite run toward the bear and yell at it. Submissively it plods away into the darkness.

Slipping back into my sleeping bag, I wonder at the foolishness of the next-site campers. There are signs everywhere about the bear lockers. There are pictures of bears eating out of coolers they have liberated from cars using the handy bear-claw key to rip out windows. How could these people think that shoving their cooler under their camper - it's obvious that's where it was - would keep it safe?

Talking and the sounds of collecting broken glass continue for half an hour.

I've been reading Can Poetry Save the Earth?: a Field Guide to Nature Poems by John Felstiner.  Can poetry save the earth? If I write a poem about this bear, will it save some bear somewhere? For that is what happens when bears eat human food. Some become aggressive and have to be killed by the rangers.

Keep your food in the bear-proof locker
Or the results will be a shocker!


No! No! what bad poetry that is.

What if I could just whisper to the bears, "Eating out of a cooler isn't cool."