Losing My Life as I Know It

Like a golden brown mama grizzly bear, 
Soft belly, strong shoulders
Ambling down a mountain path,
I mean no harm.
Although I do get scared sometimes and attack,
Standing up to what frightens me.

Having sharp, strong teeth and
Huge vicious claws, created to help feed me,
I tear into berries and roots
And sometimes into sweet flesh,
The bloody nectar of the gods.

My species is dying out, slowly, gradually.
Climate change and predators like
Human beings have challenged our existence.

Maybe these beings don’t mean to intrude into
My home but they do.
Even if they are not hunting me,
They scream and holler and throw
Stuff at me, ugly demons,
When all I am trying  to do is to
Protect myself 
And, my children.

They need their mother.
I need them as well.

But when guns and hunters enter my forest,
I can smell their fear, their anticipation of horror,
Their desire for blood, acting out their rage
By killing harmless animal beings with machines.
Not even for food to feed the kids,
Just a stuffed trophy to show off. 
No chance for innocent animals.

I have grown up scared all of my life,
And, now, my heartbeat is waning,
Softening, disappearing,
While I die because of some man’s
Wish to overpower a beast so
Much larger than himself.

I do not worry about my murderer,
Although I am concerned about my kids.
I hope they will survive without me.

I am going to a new place,
A new time and a new space
To become reborn with my own soul.
To merge with all those other souls
Who have died and all those
Who will come after me.

Rocked in the womb of death,
Cradled by the universe,
Suckling the breast of the Goddess
From whom all things flow and to whom
We return when this physical life is no more.