Great Grizzly

Stubby nose;
Sharp sense of smell;
Black Eyes;
Dull sense of sight.
 
Your shaggy hair looks haggard to me,
To you it’s warm and
Quick to dry.
Prickly to the touch your pelt is quit the find.
 
I see you walk through the shadow of dawn’s fading sky.
Feeding;
Eating yellow heads;
Themselves filled with life.
Gentle;
Lips dexterous and full of mobility;
Picking each flower with grace.
Moving;
Constantly wandering the slopes;
Never settling for long.
Power;
Speed;
Elegance.
 
All these are defined by you.
You show these characteristics
As if you know our words.
 
Your life brings us meaning
Though your deeds.
Your mighty will has brought us strength
In the duties we have done.
 
If we let you live, you will give us life.
All that has been set aside is our hope to be.
Almost everywhere you are threatened,
Watched and protected
From evils in life.
 
When the end has it, I hope we had it right.
You beauty will never again be seen in the mountain’s light.
If we lose you to our gluttony
It will have been not for lack of fight.
You are worth all the world left
Protected as parks and preserves.
 
Your beauty once was seen right here on the southern prairie lands,
Now Grizzly-less at a glance.
Feed from the Bison in their huge herds
You were left to wander and now have returned…
 
Returned not to the Bison-less south,
But to the tree filled areas of the north.
Called
Barren Lands Grizzly
You have come to stay
And you are welcome.
 
You survived all the years gone bye
 in the harshness of arctic life.
You rival the might of Nanook and
Have earned the right
To wander farther south and claim a place to be!
 
 
It happens in Alberta,
It’ll happen here too.
When Grizzly meets man
Our livestock will fall prey.
 
The spread of this bear should not be thought of with fear
But gathered up and collected,
Glued together and
Have the shattered past of
Another carnivorous giant
Explored in their place.