When I was young I was quite the adventurous bundle
With wide eyes and chubby legs made to trundle

They took me many places

Into the sagebrush forest
Across cacti fields
To the umbrella tree

These were sacred spaces

I followed imprints in the sand
Howls on the wind

Some days
The sagebrush cut my arms
The cacti left spines in my feet
The trees did not shade me from the heat

When I could not keep up
I would return home
Tears in my brown eyes

My father would hear my cries
Bandage my cuts
Remove the cacti from my soles
And soothe aloe on my burns
He told me I would never be left behind

My father always had a solution
and wrapped in clouds of gauze
words of affirmation
and tender love
I never scarred