Night Deer

In the evening field
the silhouette
the ears, the antlers
the shadowed form
then, rising up
a dozen more
staking their supper claim
temerity lost in the dark

An Offering To Dancing Man

Deep inside the cave
the tour paused
to gather round an ancient glyph

a limestone sheet

painted, pre-history

by some ancestor three millennia ago

on the left

a human shape, arms and legs extended

as if in a leap

on the right

a jagged snake or bolt of lightening

as Kelly, our patient effusive ranger

explained to us these images

the fat barking boomer of the group barged to the front

to take a picture

and as he knelt and Kelly orated

he let out a loud rapacious fart

deafening, thunderous in Mammoth's stillness

and all of us in attendance

stunned, silent, stifling laughter

thus was fealty paid to Dancing Man

by our modern day equivalent- Farting Man.

I tell my sorrow to the stones

There is a stone
with epitaph:
her spirit smiles
from that far shore
and softly whispers
"weep no more"

and beyond death

this message seeks

one hundred years

and more it leaps

to my heart

this day it strikes

to remember well

a once bright light

Esline Age 1852-1912

Mammoth Cave

Second stop where were spending most of our time, Mammoth Cave. Beautiful forest and really cool long cave system. Did a tour each day we were here, the lantern one especially was great.