The graying clouds had overcome the sun<\/p>\n
Leaving it dreary and depressed<\/p>\n
Glad to have the heat calmed<\/p>\n
I knew rain wouldn’t be far behind<\/p>\n
The hike had been long<\/p>\n
And I was sore<\/p>\n
But I hastened my stride<\/p>\n
Not wanting to be out late or<\/p>\n
Too Long<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I tripped<\/p>\n
A rock had rolled onto the path<\/p>\n
I had not seen it.<\/p>\n
My face falling into the dirt<\/p>\n
I looked around<\/p>\n
The trail was deserted<\/p>\n
No one to help. I tried to stand<\/p>\n
I failed<\/p>\n
I laid, giving in to the frustration for just a moment<\/p>\n
I would try again<\/p>\n
My eyes caught something. It was white.<\/p>\n
I pulled my attention closer<\/p>\n
Pulled myself up as best I could<\/p>\n
And crawled towards it<\/p>\n
My leg was bleeding<\/p>\n
But my face turned ashen<\/p>\n
A skull, human, picked clean<\/p>\n
Just off the trail<\/p>\n
A single daisy growing up through it<\/p>\n
Not too far away other bones<\/p>\n
I thought of the missing women<\/p>\n
The missing hikers<\/p>\n
The missing girlfriends<\/p>\n
Whose bodies were never found<\/p>\n
I grabbed my phone<\/p>\n
There was no signal<\/p>\n
I tore a sleeve from my shirt<\/p>\n
And wrapped my leg<\/p>\n
I stood up, wobbly<\/p>\n
I grabbed anything I could to mark the spot<\/p>\n
Rocks, branches, making a circle<\/p>\n
Around the skull<\/p>\n
Around the place<\/p>\n
I began to walk the trail again<\/p>\n
Trying to remember each clue<\/p>\n
To where I was<\/p>\n
The skull image blistering my brain.<\/p>\n
I pushed myself<\/p>\n
Pulled myself. down the mountain<\/p>\n
down to the end of the trail<\/p>\n
everyone was gone<\/p>\n
Only I remained<\/p>\n
The sun setting<\/p>\n
I reached for my phone<\/p>\n
A small signal<\/p>\n
I called for help<\/p>\n
The answer never came<\/p>\n
A moment later<\/p>\n
a whack, my head screaming in pain<\/p>\n
I hit the dirt again<\/p>\n
I looked up<\/p>\n
His full body a giant above me<\/p>\n
A log in hand, he hit me again<\/p>\n
and again and again<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My skull would never grow a daisy<\/p>\n
My picture would be on a poster<\/p>\n
I also rest<\/p>\n
In an unmarked grave<\/p>\n
Just off the trail<\/p>\n
A reminder to women<\/p>\n
Never hike alone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The graying clouds had overcome the sun Leaving it dreary and depressed Glad to have the heat calmed I knew rain wouldn’t be far behind The hike had been long And I was sore But I hastened my stride Not wanting to be out late…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25375"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25542,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25375\/revisions\/25542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}