The Night the Bears Roamed

Family vacation my brother & I brought friends to our mountain cabin. Homesickness struck.

The Night the Bears Roamed

While my Dad
         sat on the front porch
of the vacation cabin,
a baseball bat across his lap
                   to ward off the bears,
Mamma sat on the lower
         bunk in the kids dorm
with her arm around
         my sobbing friend,
gathered the rest of us kids
and taught us all to recite
         the 23rd Psalm.

"Yeah though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death
                             I will fear no evil."
The bears were looming
         so we listened,
"Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me,"
Well a baseball bat
         made a pretty good rod
                   against imaginary bears.
"Surely goodness and mercy will follow me",
"And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
We believed,
         we were safe,
                   the bears were gone.

To this day when afraid
         I remember that night
                   and the bears go away.
                             ~~Judi Van Gorder

Notes: ▶︎

31 Lines
Free Verse
Prompt: Psalm 23
Honerable Mention graciously awarded, in spight of the fact that I should have been disqualified for too many lines. I will have to pay more attention to the rules next time.

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