THE GREAT BEAR GOD
THE GREAT BEAR GOD, by Gary Every
The Siberian shaman sings and prays
at this ancient place
where the rocks wear faces.
The river cascades across the rows of stones,
many of the boulders wearing human visages,
features of geology and erosion.
This cliff above the waterfall
resembles a gathering of rocks with human faces
but only one of the rocks wears a painted face,
human hands painting an enigmatic expression in red
far back in the human past,
before man had discovered iron,
before the first agrarian civilizations arose.
These are colors which have lasted tens of thousands of years,
a faith which stands fast in the face
of earthquake, drought, winter, famine and modernity.
For tens of thousands of years
Siberian shamans have been coming to Tasayeva,
burning fragrant herbs and beating drums
while wearing fringe and feathers
lifting their voices to the heavens as they chant,
singing ancient songs.
The archeaologist excavates the earth
at this ancient sacred place
and discovers bear teeth burials.
Back when the czars of Russia
were still great and powerful men,
an orthodox church was erected on this very spot,
this ancient hallowed ground.
Being the tallest thing for many miles around,
during a violent storm, the church steeple
was struck by lightning and burned down.
The archaeologist excavates the church cemetery
expecting to find the graves of three dead priests
and although he discovers all three tombstones
not a single bone is to be found.
The singing shaman interrupts his song and smiles.
Even in the afterworld, he says, the bear god still gets hungry.
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Gary Every is an award winning journalist, proffessional storyteller, slam poet, and has been nominated for the Rhysling Award for year’s best science fiction poem 6 times. His fantasy novellas Inca Butterflies and The Saint and the Robot are both available online as well as The Shadow of the Ohshad an anthology of the best of his newspaper columns.
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