208700
4
As a young child, alone
i would hike many miles
on military reservations
exploring along unmarked pathways
on trails which stuck in my mind,
how to get back before dark
not just a walk in the park
never a care, How? Why?
not quite defiance,
self-reliance, perhaps
never a second thought
for what if... or what might
nothing i was taught
prepared me for that
bring a young black child
with a yearning to learn
what i needed to know
about animals
with nothing
but a natural sense of adventure
as a driving force,
a hope and a slight semblance
of what you might call a prayer
While i was still young,
say 10 or so, our family
lived on base in Germany.
By that time brave
or foolish friends
would come with me,
sometimes using bikes.
Expanding the territory
we might discover.
Brave or foolish,
definitely.
Yet we always found our way back.
Except, once or twice,
my family called the military police
to find me when it was getting dark.
And i was still on my way back,
where i knew where i was,
But my parents were old school
Back before the streetlights came on
was the rule. Punished,
i was a detention valedictorian.
Restriction too many times
to remember.
i was a genuine explorer,
not a pretender.
how did i get back safe each time.
Luck if you believe.
Prayer i am sure
my account
was overdrawn to many times
over my allowance.
carried no maps
or auxiliary supplies
food, water, dry set of clothes.
weapons, in case i was attacked.
Nothing,
not even I.D.
Imagine that?
C2
