A Bear, a Salmon, and a Man From Santa Fe

In the middle of the river stood a bear all aquiver In anticipation of his first meal of the Spring Just a ways away was fisher man from Santa Fe Who had sworn to bring his wife the very same thing There was a salmon down the stream that fit both the dreamers' dream And she was comin' hard with a belly full of roe Oh, she had climbed three water falls as they do when Nature calls And she guessed she only had a hundred yards to go She had known the bed she sought and the price she would pay when bought But nothin' was too much to pay in this cycle of life and death She had been to sea a thousand leagues and lived her life in endless intrigues As she fought with man and nature with each treasured breath Then she saw just up ahead a tasty morsel before her bed She had no way of knowing that the morsel was connected to the man And she was weary and never saw the danger of the upraised paw She could only think of a fine meal before she laid her load in the sand Then it was plain to see some things in Nature are meant to be The salmon came into the bear's reach as the lure came floating by The bear swung at the salmon's dorsal as the man yanked on the tasty morsel And sunk the hook deep in the hungry bear's fishing paw Silence gave way to scream as the fish hastily moved upstream The fisherman and all his gear clumsily fell off the rock The bear would fish no more today just find himself a place to lay And the man from Santa Fe just swore and wrung out a sock And so the fish had reached her bed it could have gone two ways instead As both led to a much larger creature's dinner table Do not discount it as a rumor for Mother Nature has a sense of humor Both man and bear took it on the chin and the fish had babies as she was able 2-6-21 Larry Bradfield