A bear is just a bear until one day it’s a full-dressed man with claws. Seam-rip button down collared shirt and loose socks, this bear has only recently become a man. He walks with purpose, down hallways of his own choosing. Establish dominance, roar if you have to, it’s going to be a great day. At the TDS Metrocom telemarketer interview tell the shivering people across the table what a team player you are. Eat your lunch in silence with the rest of the bear-men. No one said this would be easy. Go back home, sit in your half-furnished apartment and think about the woods you left to be here. The sunlit briar and thistle-weeds. The scrolled bark of a birch sliced thin as you scrape your wiry body over it, marking what’s rightfully yours.

Andrew McSorley is the author of What Spirits Return (Kelsay Books). He holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University, and his poetry has previously appeared in journals such as The Minnesota Review, UCity Review, HAD, Sledgehammer, and many others. He lives and works in Appleton, Wisconsin. You can find him on twitter @andrew_myron.