Listing to Port

1. I once knew a bear - let me tell you her story
This bear was all grizzly and grumpy and growly and gory
She busied her bear days with scrumping and prey
And bearing about in a bear sort of way.
At dawn the bear got up for breakfast, all yawning,
Ate squirrels on sticks (which she kept for snacks in the morning)
And picked at her teeth with a suitable bone
And went to the woods for some bear time alone.

She beared right to the site of her favourite tree  
Where she found fifteen tourists, all shouting with glee:

There’s a bear! Where’s a bear? Over there! See that hair?
That’s a bear. Hello bear! (take a photo of its lair!)
Poke the bear, if you dare! Bear? Bear! Bear? Bear? Bear! Bear! Bear! There’s a bear!
And the bear rolled her eyes with a look of mild surprise
And beared back home again.

2. Oh well, thought the bear in a bear sort of way,
It seems that these woods are engaged for this part of the day.
There are other locations a bear can attend
To the needs that a bear has around the rear end.
Why, just up over the mountain (or so it is claimed)      
Lies the thickest of prickly forests with thickets untamed
All greeny and grim and with thorns overgrown
So I’ll go to that forest for bear time alone.

She found there a woodland as wild as was famed.
So had thirty-three hikers, who loudly exclaimed:

There’s a bear! Where’s a bear? Over there! See that hair?
That’s a bear. Hello bear! (take a photo of its lair!)
Poke the bear, if you dare! Bear? Bear! Bear? Bear? Bear! Bear! Bear! There’s a bear!
And the bear did a growl and a grumpy sort of scowl
And beared back home again.

3. Oh well, thought the bear in a state of some tension:
Wherever needs must a bear is a fount of invention.
I have here a passport, a hat and a beard
Which I’ve sheared from a hiker (now feared disappeared).
The bear repaired to an airport the following day
Where she furtively boarded a plane in a bear sort of way.
This bear through the air flew to pastures unknown
Save for suitable jungles for bear time alone.

I know about jungles - for bear time they’re better
Except for this bear, ‘cause that’s where I met her.
You wouldn’t believe all the photos I got!
There was quite a commotion, believe it or not.
Being trapped in a tree for a number of days
Makes one empathize with the bears and their ways.
I promised (with hope of avoiding a slaying)
I’d pass on in song to those thinking of saying:

There’s a bear! Where’s a bear? Over there! See that hair?
That’s a bear. Hello bear! (take a photo of its lair!)
Poke the bear, if you dare! Bear? Bear! Bear? Bear? Bear! Bear! Bear! There’s a bear!
That I think I’d advise that such actions are not wise:
You should go back home again!

4988 Bears
 -4988.1 Real bears
    –4988.11 Polar
       —4988.111 Grolar
    –4988.12 Grizzly
       —4988.121 Both grumpy and grizzly
    –4988.13 Black
    –4988.14 Panda
       —4988.141 Adorable baby international-diplomacy pandas
    –4988.14 Other
       —4988.141 Bear stars of Youtube
 -4988.2 Things that look like bears
    –4988.21 Beards that look like the owner is eating a bear
    –4988.22 Mounds of fluff that look like hibernating bears
 -4988.3 Bears of myth and story
 -4988.4 International bears of mystery
    –4988.41 Those bears that are found on subway systems around the world
    –4988.42 Bears in ill-fitting coats and sunglasses, eating meat
    –4988.43 Bears lurking under manhole covers and between the cracks of the pavement
    –4988.44 Bears that sit in the rain and tell melancholy stories
    –4988.45 Those bears that lie upside-down in your favourite chair and refuse to move
 -4988.5 Bears in rhyming situations
    –4988.51 In their lairs
    –4988.52 On the stairs
    –4988.53 Doing a stage routine that once was Fred Astaire’s
 -4988.6 Toy bears