I have lain on the path of bone chilling fear
watched as the death angel hovered near
Midnight I rode the trail where black lion stalked
my steed snorting his course stayed.. balked
I lost my seat and the moon swirled around
my head was the first to kiss frozen ground
My body bounced down the Arbuckles crag
the earth drank my blood and there I laid
and dreamed the dream of death’s opening door
of life unlived and path’s untracked with joy untasted
my future my claim on living gone as I lay wasted
but awareness came as light chased away the night
My companion grazed close by had kept the cat away
snow tracks around my death bed testified to his stay
my shirt red soaked with life’s precious fluid staining the ground
I drug my pain racked body to the saddle and started down
past the still waiting mountain lion eyes peering from thick weeds
the smell of my blood kept him waiting to quench his savage needs
I looked back as he smelled my blood spilled in the snow where I lay
then followed us for awhile before turning to find unguarded prey
Danpatch went to equine heaven during the next season’s winter strife
But in my dreams I still count the tracks of my friend who saved my life.
jdm10/23/2006 based on a true occurrence with some literary license applied...My dad was a cowboy and Danpatch had been his favorite horse until he was retired to be my horse. At the time of the poem he was over twenty years old and I was 12.
