Prose 9: Bear walking backwards

Joe Pivetti's Poetry, Haiku and Poesy: Prose 9

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Bear walking backwards

Once there were 500 pound brown bears all throughout California
(Ursus arctos californicus).
Some were furred with grizzly and gold tips.
Vaqueros pitted bears against bulls in the 1800's.
The Sonoma bear flag of the California Republic was hoisted in 1846.
The California gold rush of 1849 brought lots of men and guns
And the big bears were hunted and/or shot on sight.
UC Berkeley adopted the golden bear as the school symbol in 1895.
A large black California grizzly named Monarch was captured by Hearst's men in 1889
And put in a bear pit in San Francisco for 22 years,
Then he was euthanized, stuffed and mounted for the California Academy of Science
(Where he resided there in Golden Gate Park until 2003).
In 1922 Golden bear sportswear was established and a Fresno farmer shot the last golden bear.
Jack Nicklaus was nicknamed the golden bear in 1960.
The Huntington Beach golden bear night club was demolished in 1986.
The golden bear galactic-forest rock band was formed in 2007.
Biologists have now determined that all grizzly and brown bears are the same species
And plan to import Rocky Mountain grizzly bears to northern California
To beef up the herd.
Go Bears.

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