1. They bulldozed his home, taking old-growth trees that sheltered him while he slept.
2. They gassed his siblings in their den, a memory he carries like an open wound.
3. They said they couldn’t have him prowling backyards where children play.
4. He lost his lower leg to a wire snare meant for a coyote.
5. His mate needed a safe place to birth her babies.
6. His mate got hit by a semi-tractor trailer on I-90.
7. There was a bounty on his hide.
8. They shot his father.
9. He was a trophy.
10. He was lonely.
This poem first appeared in The Citron Review.
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Kim Steutermann Rogers lives in Hawaii. Her chapbook Denatured: Stories of Change will publish in June 2025 from Emerge Literary Journal. Her science journalism has published in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Audubon and prose, recently, in Ghost Parachute, and Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine. Kim’s work has been nominated for Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fiction, and Best of the Net honors. She’s been awarded residencies at Storyknife Writers Retreat and at Dorland Mountain Arts.
