LUCKLESS DAY

A slow painful tramp back to my truck
after eight total hours
of being
..still
...alert
....cold
......cramped
.........................luckless

Old knees and muscles fairly scream
as they creak from too much time
...........unflexed

Flashlight shows uneven ground
old stumps, logs, vines and rocks
all anxious to send me home
with another fall
sprained and bruised

Will I never reach my truck?

Didn't see a single deer

But I did see

Winter stars desert the sky
as day and woodlands came awake
wood ducks whistling as they fly
headed toward a hidden lake

Half sun through limbs still and bare
at dawn, the coldest time of day
and the jack frost thick as hair
bouncing sunbeams on their way

A lone coyote stalking prey
(I felt a bit of kinship there)
turkeys descending for the day
their drop broken by wings' flare

Gray acrobats in the tree tops
as they chased and barked at one another
the tic of time which never stops
as seconds flow on past each other

I saw the whole world come awake
then take a mid day rest
as if on a short nap break
and flocks upon their southern quest

Then later on as sun went down
as owls and racoons greeted night
a train whistle drifted in from town
I saw the sun sink out of sight

At last! My old truck!
burdens laid in bed
sigh of upholtered relief
anticipation of warm heater on cold self
another luckless wasted day

SOME might say