THE DREAM BEAR
The first thing that the grizzly bear did when she came to the motor vehicle wreckage, was hook on to the man's left shoulder, she dragged him out into the snow, the first things to go were his two legs from the knees down, neatly sliced off and captured by car metal, they now floated as spongy flesh back in the driver's cabin, then the bear let go and tasted the wind, there was a red river of blood through the ice, as the man began to drag towards the base of the slope using his elbows, as if the bear didn't exist or that it would somehow vanish, bleeding to death in sub zero temperatures was more than enough for him to cope with, he was delirious with blood loss, by this stage not even thinking how to survive, now that he had survived the accident, the bear played with him briefly, she had a few cubs a little further down the incline, i saw the two way radio sprawled within reach, its cords dangling in the snow, yet it was a long way away from where the man was headed, the bear ripped his left arm away at the shoulder and disregarded it, soon the bearded man was pathetic, a tubular organ of blood hanging from his mouth, his insides worked their way out and everything became wrongly attuned to living, the glare in his eye was evidence, that his mind had gone beyond its most horrible imaginings, it was now reaching out to death and not life, life was gone but still he was living, i wondered, is he dead? surely he must be, his dark mustache so thick with coagulation that it looked like he grew a beard of blood, then i could hardly believe it, again he had taken to hobbling through the snow, like he had a caterpillar torso, his legs buckling up beneath him, one arm digging into the ice like a walking stick that was too short, to carry him up the slight undulation, he was still living, the final predator was death, coming to life from a long way off, the bear simply sniffed him along for awhile, then looked down at the pathetic attempt, there was nothing about the incident to make her anxious, she stuck her big knitting needle claw, straight through the side of the man's head, pinning him to the hill, i watched from behind the thick glass of the other motor vehicle, fully terrified, thankful. |
