Polar Bear Rap    Al Simmons 2023    



On one of my visits to Churchill a few years ago I was invited to go for an “adventure” by a friend who was a visiting tourist.  Always up for a new experience I, and a couple of other trusting souls, jumped into a car he borrowed from a local fellow.  It was pitch dark on a February afternoon when we got out of the car and started walking.  I asked where, exactly, we were going.  He said “There are polar bears hanging around the dump.  We are going to see them.”  I turned the parka-wrapped-meat-parade around by quoting a line that my Inuit friend Jimmy Snowball often told me: “a polar bear’s black nose is the last thing you’ll ever see.”


My southern cousin groundhog

Forecasts from his lair,

But when I see my shadow 

I really don’t care.


All day it’s dark, as dark as night,

I know this sounds surprising, 

At noon each day we see the light

Glow red on south horizon.


I’m the boss of all this snow

No flightless bird in tuxedo. 

I don’t lie where penguin sits,

In fact we’re polar opposites.


The South Pole is where Penguins 

wobble on webbed feet.

North is North and South is South 

and ne'er the twain shall meet.


One season means a lot to me,

A slow spring thaw.

I hunt for three because my cubs

Rely upon their maw.


I’m white as snow for one good reason,

Invisible one entire season.

All white, that is, except my snout.

A curious fact that you'll find out,


If in a blizzard you meet me

My big black nose just might be

 

The last thing you ever see.

© Al Simmons 2025
www.alsimmons.com