A TIME FOR ALL

An aging great-necked bear once stood,
On a knoll in the morning haze,
The wind ran through his shaggy fur,
His great head rocked with rage.

His blood caked where his skin was torn,
One eyelid drooped half-closed,
And here and there some fur was gone,
And blood oozed from his nose.

He’d been in a fight, that much was sure,
He’s lost it, that much too,
Yet you couldn’t see what really hurt,
For his heart was broke in two.

A younger bear had beaten him,
It was an honest fight,
That raged from morning’s early hours,
Til evening’s darkened night.

And when the battle ended,
And the vicious furor still,
It was the aging great-necked bear,
That was driven from his hill.

He’d lost it all, for once and good,
He’d never get it back,
The hill, the cubs, the females too,
Their comfort must be lack.

For there is a season to each of us,
As he had lived his own,
And when it nears its bitter end,
We fight for what we’ve known.

And like that shaggy great-necked bear,
Our loss comes hard to us,
We can’t believe our time has come,
It has been ever thus.

But life goes on, the cycle swings,
To each there his a day,
And like the great-necked shaggy bear,
Soon must it slip away.
And so he sinks unto the ground,
His power slowly gone,
As we who reach our hearts to him,
Must do, yet on and on.

Joey