Dear Editor:

This poem can be sung to the theme from “The Beverly Hillbillies”:

Come and listen to a story ’bout a bear in a tree

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A cinnamon-colored bear that is staring down at me

There’s a cinnamon-colored bear way up in a tree

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And he’s really, really, really, really scared of me.

I asked a forest ranger to come and see

The cinnamon-colored bear way up there in that tree

He looked in the tree, then he answered me

“That is a cinnamon-colored black bear

Way up in that tree.”

He said “The bears were here long before you and me

They like to eat berries when they ripen on the trees

If you look around you’ll see we built this town

Smack dab in the middle of the bears’ feeding ground.”

So keep your own food away from the bears

Protect yourself and protect the bears

Then we can live with the bears all around

We’ll eat our food and they can eat theirs

That’s the end of the story ’bout the bear in a tree

He finally climbed down then he wasn’t hanging ’round

If I ever do see another bear in a tree

I’ll know why he’s there and I promise not to stare

He is a cinnamon-colored black bear

Species ursus

He can weigh over 400 pounds.

Susan Anderson

El Jebel