Laura Sherry

From “A Town on the River”

THE LUMBER jacks called him Pine-tree Parker.

He was long and lean and straight and lovely.

He hunted big game—moose and caribou.

One year, under the north star,

He got a shot at a polar bear,

And carried the glistening white hide to the door of the woman he loved.

His step was as light as a child’s

And padded like an animal’s;

But the hard knuckles of his fist split the panel of the door

When the woman he loved locked it against him.

“All right, girl—all right!”—

And his light step again sought the woods

And big game—

Moose and caribou.