POEM - Just Missed the Wall of Water

Preparing for the hike unaware of danger

Dad's friend from work had come by

He was a Remington painting embodied

An old cow hand who had scraped out a living

            From them thar hills

He was to be our guide into the mountains

Trying to explain some safety measures

But Berg's dad was chiming in too often

Sometimes you can be in a dry wash

And suddenly an eight foot wall of water will come

Wash you right sown the stream

They’ll uncover your corpse

Sometime after Monsoon season

We'll, isn't that pleasant ...

Ed confirmed the possibility

but a pained look crossed his face

He loved those mountains

He knew what was  more dangerous than floods

Was to speak harshly of them

And he was trying to help us have a good time

When the day finally came it was raining

And Berg's dad had to leave the station wagon behind

Because the dry wash was flowing deep

It was no problem for Ed's truck

It had at least a two foot lift on it

But for practical reasons, not show

He rolled into the river

With all of us piled in the back

Billy kept us entertained

With stories the whole way

We were rolling in laughter

Most of the slow drive up the canyon

The next day was the hike to the cliff dwellings

Four miles down the wash that felt like only one

When the path opened and the ruins appeared

We were transfixed by the pure coolness

A sign had been placed at the site

Explaining the dwellings were over 600 years old

Older than our country

From up high among the walls

We could see a clear blue pool of water below

Completely cleaned out of mud and dirt

By some ancient inhabitants

So meticulously constructed

That it still shone bright among the other dark streams

We survived in tact

We were not swept away in a flash flood

The drums of the Ghost Dance were not heard

Injures were minor and infrequent

And the only unpleasant creatures

We're one huge centipede

And a proliferation of barking spiders

Coming from the old man tents

Weeks later back home

All of us were running around the neighborhood

Playing tag or dodge ball

Billy got drenched somehow

Probably from the hose at Rugg's house

He came back seeking refuge

When my mom asked what happened

He said an eight foot wall of water

Had come out of nowhere

Just like Berg's dad had warned