Lessons Along a Thorny Trail
A desert childhood
taught wariness.
I learned to search
for rattle snakes
warming themselves;
muted colors melding
with an arid landscape
of arrowheads and sand.
Once, at sun-up,
as I went to feed
the appaloosa,
a diamondback
sidled slowly
across the thorny trail
to the horse corral.
Silent, stealthy,
softly muscular
beneath my booted foot,
it taught me to jump
high, wide, and faster
than fangs could strike.
Even now, growing old,
I scan the ground ahead.
[Photo by Edward Karkow]
A desert childhood
taught wariness.
I learned to search
for rattle snakes
warming themselves;
muted colors melding
with an arid landscape
of arrowheads and sand.
Once, at sun-up,
as I went to feed
the appaloosa,
a diamondback
sidled slowly
across the thorny trail
to the horse corral.
Silent, stealthy,
softly muscular
beneath my booted foot,
it taught me to jump
high, wide, and faster
than fangs could strike.
Even now, growing old,
I scan the ground ahead.
[Photo by Edward Karkow]
If you would like to participate in this series, send a photo of yourself composing a poem or writing or a picture of a location where you enjoy writing, along with one of your poems (the type/genre of poem doesn't matter). This series will allow us to see the various locations that inspire us or where we go to write.