Lost... Again

It's beautiful, but we're lost, and soon the falling sun will hide the trail
There's no opening here and no safe place to rest

The brush is thick and though I'm looking for things with scales
I do not want to be found, to see them first is best

And as the sun slips further down I see the place we need to be
So through sharp thorns from black berries I carry Scale Lily

With no flashlights and blackness coming, I question my delay
Just one more trail, and one more bend, its what I always say

But now no trail and chewed up legs, and listening to the brush
No rattle yet, no smell of musk, all is but a hush

And then my feet on sugar sand, so good to see my feet again
I set Scale down, and said, "see there, it worked just like I planned"

"Sure, dad"

Calvin "Cheese Grits" Yerke

One of those days where you wait too long and end up fighting the dark. Over and over again you say to yourself, "I should't have stayed here so long, and I shouldn't have stayed so long with a child." Then over and over again you quote to yourself:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me…

The 23rd Psalm, and it calms you and then later you look back and realize that if you maid better choices you would never be so dramatic. It's good to see your feet, and if you can help it, it is better not to race the sun, especially in the mountains. When I lived in the Appalachians I had my closest encounter to getting bit, and that was by a copperhead, because I was unprepared and couldn't see the path. It gets black out there and the sun disappears quickly behind the mountains, and you would think I would learn but I dare not think how many times I have been lost. Now that I have children I try to be more careful, especially when I am with them. It was not a close call this time, but it was a reminder.