WALK, DON'T RUN

I sleep, I dream and awaken:
After a cup of Tea
I begin a walk over the Hills
Through rocks, trees and scrub
In the tentative light of dawn.

There’s a place on my walk
Where it is necessary to jump
Over a seasonal creek;
Dry now, but its crevice
Prepared for Winter’s rains. 

This forms a gap
In the continuity of the walk
A necessary pause
To prepare for the action
Of leaping from rock to bank.

This used to be my run
Now downgraded to a walk
But the frisson of the jump
Remains the same.
Always the risk of a fall.

A mad scramble out of the ditch
Fighting the gravitational pull
Of its flow line, grasping for the
Further bank: this is the scenario
That runs through my mind.

It is a necessary hazard.
How else to make the traverse
Over to the steep and rutted
Track that takes me down
To the valley floor…and home?