Written on 1 May 2017; published on 31 December 2018; republished on 16 December 2020

CUYAMACA OMEN
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
1 May 2017

 

Once I ran
a leaf-strewn path
beside a sometime mountain stream
my family
ground its meal by

Young then, but lithe,
I was
the Silent Runner

It was the black bear
took my life
Still wondering —
What will this brave boy
become?

. . . . .

Later I walked
Those mountain paths
Saw him fly by,
heading downstream

I stopped to nap
under our family’s oak tree,
Woke with a start!
What’s that behind me?

But it was
only a coyote child.

. . . . .

Yesterday
the air was full
of omens

What should I do?
I asked
my Cuyamaca dad

You are, he said,
My cherished one —
Go quick!
May these thy feet
touch not one leaf!

And so I fled
back to the quiet places –

. . . . .

Dad, dad!
Once more I am
the silent runner!

Image: “California Wildflower,” by Alice B. Clagett, ca. 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0, from “Awakening with Planet Earth,” https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com .. 

. . . . .

–from Link: “Cuyamaca Omen,” a poem by Alice B. Clagett, written on 1 May 2017; published on 31 December 2018; republished on 16 December 2020 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-l2U ..

Also published here … Link: “Demonic Clearing Yesterday, to Do with World War II,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 21 September 2018 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-ab0 ...

Alice B. Clagett

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Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

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