I have another poem to share. It's from 2004.This one is a story, which introduces three wonderful characters who live with the people on the edge of a great plain. They are Ariel, a hunter, guide, tracker, and an arrogant young man. Jenna, his headstrong sister, who though intelligent is also gifted with the ability to get into serious trouble. Finally, there is Cinder, a full grown plains she-cat, roughly the size of Bengal Tiger, she is the ultimate plains hunter, and the symbol of all that is wild on the Edge. This is the story of how Jenna runs away from a life of perpetual servitude, only to stumble onto a life-long partnership and unconditional love. Enjoy.
Mick
The Chase
Ariel woke with a thorn in his side.
He'd wandered the woods all day without sight
Of his quarry, and he'd called it a night
Under a bush, near an ancient mud slide.
As there in the dark, he renewed his pledge
To search for the child, who'd fain run away,
Than fulfill her duty to learn, and stay
There with her people who lived on the edge;
He swore when he found her for her mother,
He'd teach her a lesson, fit for her age,
And just maybe vent a bit of his rage.
What else could he do? He was her brother!
Jenna had walked down an old river bed,
Now jumping from stone to stone on the way,
And never touching the damp river clay,
So none could detect where her path had led.
Still, Ariel had skill like no other -
Tracking and finding were his only job!
She had to find a clever way to rob
The path of clues, which would help her brother.
Then, with an energy born of her strife,
Driven by fear of the future she'd fled,
She moved like a plains cat down that old bed,
Stealing away from an unwanted life.
Ariel wondered at Jenna's light tread,
Harder and harder to find were each clue,
Signs of her passage became far and few,
As into the mountains her journey led.
"Stone tells few tales," he'd told his young sister,
"Move through the land like a shadow at night."
Apparently, she'd been listening right,
As signs were so faint, he might have missed her -
Except by her habit - resting her head
On her arms, as she took a short rest,
And causing some hairs, that were rubbed and stressed,
To loosen, and be unknowingly shed.
Jenna knew well the loss of her tresses,
Would provide a path with many a sign.
And so, to confound and to misalign,
She laid false trails with hirsute addresses.
Her beautiful hair, a great source of pride,
Was loss to her heart, and pain to her soul.
Yet she abandoned her pride for her goal,
Using her treasure to help her to hide.
Back with her people, in their narrow lives,
Never were women much more than mere slaves.
Their only fate was to live in the caves,
And never be more than mothers and wives.
Ariel cried out in his frustration,
When he discovered he'd been led astray,
The obvious path that had lead away
From the river, lead to consternation.
The trail of hairs had ended so neatly
He'd hardly noticed his road signs had stopped,
His demonstration of skill had just flopped -
His little sister tricked him completely!
Defeated, he went back to the river,
Staring for hours at the stone in the sun.
Looking for small clues until he found one,
That chilled his bones, and caused him to shiver.
Jenna prowled onward, out into the plains,
Still with the river, but far to its right.
She still felt safe with the river in sight,
Watching her back trail, and taking great pains
To cover her footprints in the soft soil,
And trying hard not to crush the tall grass.
Often the soil would give way to morass,
And she moved forward only with great toil.
Finally, tired in twilight's dim hours,
She found a hillock and made a small bed,
Then curled up and slept the sleep of the dead,
Praying for safety to all kind powers.
Ariel sprang to his feet at a run,
Swiftly he passed through the shadows grown long,
Praying that he'd read the tracking signs wrong
And that the moon would be bright as the sun.
He'd seen a tiny heel print on the shore,
Leaving the stony, but safe river track,
In her desire to never come back,
His safety lessons, she chose to ignore.
Deep in his mind, was the certainty that,
What he had read in the mud must be true,
Next to her heel print, he had seen the clue -
Tracking his sister was a huge plains cat!
Jenna was dreaming of sunny days past,
Dreams that grew darker and even stranger
When a soft noise and whisper of danger,
Breached her fatigue and then woke her at last.
Jenna lay still, as her brother had taught,
And freezing as little animals tense,
Casting about and then trying to sense,
What messages the ill whispers had brought.
Far to her left she could sense a small mind,
Focused on tracking by scent her small prey,
Jubilant, planning on feasting today,
On the small animal she knew she'd find.
Ariel moved like a ghost on the trail,
Hunting the cat like a devil from hell,
Still, in the back of his mind, knowing well,
What would be lost if his hunt should now fail.
Suddenly, something brushed against his mind,
Touched him, and then it searched on it's quest.
He felt as if it had come from the west,
He leapt that way to see what he would find -
Only to stop, stone-cold still on his path,
Facing him, no more than paces away,
Ready to spring, to attack, and to slay,
Crouched a plains she-cat, hissing in wrath.
Jenna stood up and could easily see,
Ariel facing his death from the cat,
And realizing that she had caused that,
Reached out and touched the cat's mind easily.
Cinder considered the best way to kill,
Dinner that walked on two legs in the grass,
When velvet fingers created a pass
And an iron grip took hold of her will.
Ariel watched as the she-cat stepped back,
Turning to stare at a figure in white.
Jenna was standing up high in plain sight,
Bright as the sun against sky of pitch black.
Jenna's connection to Cinder, in ways
Unknown, each second, grew ever more strong,
Somehow she knew that in not very long,
They would be partners the rest of their days.
Cinder felt love for the first time that night.
Purring, she nuzzled the whisp of a child,
Who pushed aside her innate nature, wild
Sensing that somehow this joining was right.
Ariel watched this with wondering eyes,
And felt the joy as the joining took place.
Then, weakened by his long, frantic foot race,
Fell to ground, uttering small plaintive cries.
Morning found three, walking slowly toward home,
Ariel leading, as he felt he should,
Jenna not saying that she also could,
For she knew everywhere Cinder could roam.
Jenna would never be anyone's slave,
No man could force her to be his wife.
She had another that shared in her life,
Tacit assurance that men would behave.
Ariel too, had learned much from their flight,
Tested and bested by sister and cat.
He'd found his limits, a bold lesson that,
Would save his young life in many a fight.
Mick McKellar
July 2004
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