Tender

I spend late morning weeping with the news:

a black bear with burnt paws is euthanized

along the latest wildfire's newest edge.

It was crawling on its forearms, seeking

a place to rest. I Google more; reports

leak out: the bear had bedded down behind

a house, below a pine, to lick its paws.

In hours before its end, officials named

it Tenderfoot, though some reports report

just Tender. Later, I will teach a class

where we'll discuss the lengths of lines in poems.

I'll say a sonnet is a little song

to hold a thing that otherwise cannot

be held: a lonely thing; a death; a bear.