Scientist Seeking

You mattered enough for me to get this right.

There’s a handwritten tag in faded pencil it says, “Ursus arctos no data.”

Old ink seeps into the suture between your parietal bones

“No data,”

scars your mandible,

“No data,”

bleeds into the dentary,

“No Data.”

Three confessions of permanent loss.

The thick brown tag hangs off your zygomatic arch. AK GBR 0205384. It’s gibberish to me but your story is somewhere in those letters and numbers.

I fill in the columns.

Species: Ursus arctos
ID Confidence: Highly likely
Skull length: 295mm, Zygomatic width: 155mm.
Age: No data
Date collected: No data
Location collected: No data

You mattered enough for me to get this right.

I google the tag. Nothing is pinpointed here exactly to you. But close. Alaska.

I email Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It’s a Friday. I doubt I’ll hear from them today if at all. I tell them about you. I want to know you, to share your story; not just your number.

A few hours later, they reply. They tell me your story.

I fill in the columns.

Species: Ursus arctos horribilis
ID Confidence: Confirmed
Skull length: 11 11/16”, Zygomatic width: 6 2/16”.
Age: 1.5
Date collected: Fall 2002
Location collected: Seward Peninsula, Western Alaska, USA

You mattered enough for me to get this right.

Recorded.

Understood.

Not forgotten.