There is a bear walking in the woods

tonight around my house,

Or so the neighbors tell me. 

Lumbering.

Like me, 

Looking for a kind of food. 

I feel his need, 

His relentless need,

To eat, to survive, to find.

He should be in a den covered with snow

But the winter is long delayed.

So he rambles in the woods tonight

And I hesitate to walk the path I usually 

Take. 

But then I do. 

I notice the woods feel more alive now. 

I am more alive. 

I notice every sound

And search for any movement. 

I think of nothing else than this. 

A bear is walking in the woods tonight

And I am walking too,

Hungry to stay alive, 

Like him, 

Delaying winter, staying awake.