My first poem published back on 10/03/2011

http://blackheartmagazine.com/2011/10/03/abducted-by-aliens-by-benjamin-polley/

Abducted By Aliens by Benjamin Polley

Lying on an operating table
the anesthetized grizzly bear
lies in a stupor upon the ground,
drugged and hallucinating.

These alien creatures surround him,
probe him, measure him, and open his mouth,
measure the teeth and look at wear,
tattoo his inner cheek,
stretch a ruler on his paws.

"Grizzly Bear in Alaska" (photo by Flickr user Princess Lodges)

They weigh him,
stick a needle in him
drawing blood for DNA,
take a urine sample,
surgically implant a GPS unit inside him.

They back away from the bear.

The bear stirs and shakes off the dream,
but the dream won’t shake.

The bear thinks to himself,
“I really was abducted,
prodded and probed,
shot with a strange gun.”

The bear runs off into the woods
and tells all his bear friends.

The other bears say,
“Hey, we told you not to eat those magical mushrooms.”
–

Benjamin Polley lives, works and plays in Glacier National Park in Montana. He has been doing this for ten years in the park and twelve years total. He is a leader of a back country trail crew in the spring, summer and fall. In the late fall during hunting season, he stays at a cabin without running water or electricity to keep an eye out for poachers. This winter he is helping with an ongoing wolverine project in the park and enrolled in a poetry workshop with Lowell Jaeger. He is also currently taking classes through the Institute of Children’s Literature. He graduated from the University of Montana, Missoula and majored in Cultural Anthropology and has a minor in Wilderness Studies. He is a graduate of the Wilderness and Civilization Program. Ben has had poems published online at Best Poems and Poems and Poets, and an adult fiction piece at Clean Sheets.

Ads by Project Wonderf This Kid in a poetry workshop critically analyzes (or sort of)my poem on Youtube.