her father’s still alive and he is telling
her the tale of the black bear cubs,
how they clambered through the cabin window
and tore every shelf down to the floor,
gobbling crackers and pasta and dog food,
sucking the honey and draining the syrup
and scattering everything human to hell,
then finding the bed with its thick eiderdown
and falling asleep as if they knew stories
can go wild in the mountains, turn upside down,
take the world of a small golden-haired girl
and keep it climbing far and high
with her papa’s voice still smiling.
By Katharyn Machan
Katharyn Howd Machan lives with her beloved spouse and fellow poet Eric Machan Howd in a small city in central New York State resplendent with gorges and waterfalls and a long lake. Her most recent published collection is What the Piper Promised (Alexandria Quarterly Press, 2018) With joy and vitality she teaches students creative writing in fairy-tale-based courses at Ithaca College and performs with Mirage Belly Dancers as Zajal.