Poetry

Follow the Bear

its slow evolutionary path

from the shackles

of the ragged staff;

from the Beauchamp clan,

through Elizabethan poky sticks

to when Victorians reposed to it

the ancient riddle of the Sphinx.

BEAR pointed to the muzzle,

raised up his front paws

growled the answer of himself

entered through civilisation’s doors.

FOLLOW THE BEAR

domesticated by the Browns

his Peruvian tongue flattened out

with their RP rolling pin

until his name Pastuso

becomes cryptic even to him.

In ESOL classes he chants

‘My name is Paddington,

I love marmalade sandwiches’

as a mantra, as his code phrases

to cling to under duress.

FOLLOW THE BEAR

into the tail end of the 20th century,

staring down the barrel of an empty

Hofmeister can.

FOLLOW THE BEAR

on the can

still chained to the ragged staff

holding out an emancipatory lager.

FOLLOW THE BEAR

by the Swanswell, tatty pork pie hat,

faced yellow velour jacket,

dreams of home, the forests of Bavaria.

Skiving kids suck down hooch, jibing,

attempt to out his inner Barbarian.

FOLLOW THE BEAR

through the existential crisis,

becoming confused with

the classification of his species.

He is passed over for promotion.

His boss explains, ‘As my father

used to say, all you expect

from a pig is a grunt.’

Shrinking from the challenge

BEAR studies his paws, unable

to reply with eloquence.

FOLLOW THE BEAR

trying to find himself in literature;

soon he discovers his essence

pared down to a lazy plot mechanism,

re: Shakespeare’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’

Antigonus’ death:

Exit, pursued by a bear.

Gary Hughes