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2022 Issue  >  Poetry  >  Baby Bear

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Artwork by Maddie Hansen

Baby Bear

Dan Sniff

Your brain is a baby bear 

A baby bear with no hair  

It's a bare baby bear, baby  

Wisdom is the hair  

But you gotta grow that hair, baby  

You gotta bare that burden  

Bear that bare baby bear, buddy  

Bear the burden with your bare arms, baby  

It may wander from the den 

It may play in the poppy paddies  

It may even take the train of thought 

To nowheresville  

But you gotta bear with it, brother  

You gotta bear that baby bear burden  

You gotta bare that bare baby bear with bare arms  

Cause it’s gonna need some hair come winter  

Mama bear can’t be caught napping  

With her hair stacking lacking  

Cause then baby bear gets to packing  

Before you know it, he’s out the door  

He's hooting and wailing  

He's punching and stealing  

Façade peeling, innocence reeling  

Listening to punk rock, on the slump dock, with a funk in his walk  

He's shaven his own damn hair off  

And then Jack Frost comes a knocking  

Knockin the door down  

Knockin the bear’s teeth out  

He's droppin your boy like he drops beats in the streets  

Droppin him like a footprint in sopping cement  

He doesn’t stop hitting  

Cause life doesn’t pull punches  

Life's a relentless melee of mashing  

Of bashing and beating  

Gnawing and tearing and wearing down  

And soon your baby Is nothing but bare bones in a bloody gutter  

Dying the snow with ruby regret  

So next time you think about boozing and snoozing  

Maybe think about your baby bear  

Your bare little baby  

Will his future be bright  

Or bare?

Dan Sniff is a sophomore Music Education major with a Choral emphasis at UW-Platteville. He is originally from Browntown, WI. Dan is involved in music on the UW-Platteville campus, including being a member of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He also participates in theatre at UW-Platteville as an actor.

Maddie Hansen is extremely passionate about drawing, writing, and storytelling. She hopes to publish her own collection of poetry someday, with a drawing for each one. Check her out on Instagram: instagram.com/illiardbilliard

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