A polar bear cub barely ten months old leaps out of the waves onto the gravel beach She shakes the sea off and looks around There are lots of other polar bears on this spit of land But she doesn’t see her mother
Screaming the young cub searches in one direction then another She sees lots of adult females but none is her mother The cub runs away screaming even louder Whether orphaned or lost the cub is among strangers most much bigger than she is
