distance (part twenty-five)

I just saw pictures of your recent adventure.
There were flower fields along the steep grade of a mountain,
and I realized that
that picture looked familiar...

he'd hiked there, too, of course. When he was alive and young.
Now he will never age.

And I know it's stupid to worry over something like this,
But you have that same streak in you--
you even almost have the same shade of clear lake shallows in your eyes.

Watch your step, please.
Billy Goat, mountain goat,
The boy who wants views from places only eagles could reach--
oh, my dancer,
my innocent one, the uncorrupted--
please be careful.

I knew I liked you for a few reasons.
Your sense of adventure reminds me of him.

The tighter your grip around the body of a bird,
the easier it is for it to squirm out of your grasp and frantically climb through the air, away from you.

Oh,
Please be careful.
I know you will,
But even though this sense of foreboding lasted only for two seconds,
just...please...

Watch your footing.
Get enough sleep.
Don't try to jump your bike over a dry creekbed that's too wide.

Daredevil,
you belong to no one,
but heed me.

Please. Be careful.

-Dana Winter