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The Bear

Posted on May 7, 2014May 12, 2014 by Ana Garcia

He noticed that the salmon took a moment
to breathe a sigh of relief when he tore them from the water
(am I god? he asked)
and thought he heard a wheeze of joy
from the snap of bones between his teeth.

The bear has prophetic dreams on nights
that are so hot that
he cannot swallow water. He sees a beer can
bent in half like a man shot in the stomach. The bear
becomes a vegetarian; he wakes in the morning to find
feathers stuck and bent between his claws.

There has been a question swinging in his ears like frayed rope.
He moves towards a nursery that pools
beneath the rocks a mile downstream. The bear reminds
himself to pray and thanks his mother and father for allowing
death a place to sleep at the dinner table.

 

By Sofia Haines

Sofia Haines is a senior Creative Writing major at Walnut Hill School for the Arts.

What is Parallax?

Parallax is a premier high school student-edited literary magazine, featuring original fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays and screenplays, as well as book reviews and author interviews. Edited by the Creative Writing Department at Idyllwild Arts Academy, the magazine accepts submissions from high school students worldwide. Read more.

Forthcoming

Interviews with Jane Wong and Eliot Triechel, and a wonderful new batch of stories and poems!

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Past print issues can be accessed here:

Parallax 12 (2009)
Parallax 13 (2010)
Parallax 14 (2011)
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