Jeremy Nathan Marks’ poem The Way of Bear appeared here in April 2013.

The tall glass towers
By Jeremy Nathan Marks

The tall glass towers are perhaps
closer to me than the miles of
dairy farms with British names

The downtown streets with their
many languages feel more like kin
than the hills and lakes I crave

But none of this is about silences
and none of it really is about
two or four legs

The mystery surely is deeper.

I feel that I do need to be out and
frightened among wolves

And I feel the silent sweat of the
ancient stones with their timeless nights.

The tall glass towers, the polyglot
city–this is not my home

But do I really belong alone among
the last stands of forest

Where hunters aim their guns–

I do not know how the wolf or coyote sees me

But do I know how the hunters and farmers do?