The Paddock Review

Well, Hello There

 

There are turkeys on the trail

Apparently it’s their trail I had no idea

They herd me off to the side like I’m a sheep

They know me so well

 

The place is lousy with woodpeckers

red-headed something or other

I love nature but not in the way that I can identify everything

I guess it’s more of a feeling-kind-of-love than a naming-kind-of-love

 

A chipmunk scolds me for being too close to the entrance of his home

I say I’m sorry and he disappears into the darkness

his tail lingering for a minute as if to say 

here’s what I think of your apology

 

Snakes only seem to appear when I’m with other people

which is just fine with me I’m not afraid or anything

and company seems to be 

the best method for keeping it that way

 

I’m skittish walking through spider webs especially the ones that are face high

or finding moth larva on my shoulder or worse in my hair or later in a pocket

But I startle the most when other people on the trail don’t say hello

Sure they could just be distracted or deep in thought I suppose

 

like quiet little serial killers

 

deep in murderous thought

 

….

This poem is from the chapbook Tales of an Anxious Hiker by Heather Kolf (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/tales-of-an-anxious-hiker-by-heather-kolf/

Tales of an Anxious Hiker grew out of a year-long hiking challenge and a need for an acceptable place to throw a civilized tantrum in the wake of loss. Grief, fear, tacos, Jeff Daniels, the purpose of mosquitoes – nothing is off-limits as the poems wind their way through the forests and sand dunes of Michigan (with brief visits to Ohio and Arizona). Nature – at both its finest and most misery-inducing – is on full display here. And if Nature is worried about what people will think of it, then maybe Nature should have behaved better.