Setting Out

Setting Out

He left home with a cast iron skillet, matches, a little flour, lard,
and Voyd Videll Curtis Caldwell, who would follow him anywhere.
Joining them were three schoolmates ripe for adventure.
Fate had been reading Thoreau, whose experiment
he aimed to adapt to wilder conditions in the Ozarks.
Used to woods and solitary work, Fate imagined he had already tasted
a little of the marrow of life the Walden man was after.
Miss Troy, the teacher who brought him the Concord sages,
also confirmed that you had to reflect
on your experiences in order to effect a deepening.
Then there was no telling what would unfold.

The boys hiked as the long, spring day unspooled.
By the time they decided they were far enough
from the one-street hamlet of their civilization, they were famished.
Gnarly blackberry patch nearby, and the bears had left some.
The boys built a fire and baked a gooey cobbler,
juice turning to candy from a little scorching.
As dusk swooped in, Fate invited the others
to think about what becoming a leader entailed.
Voyd guffawed, chiding his friend for staying so serious.
Fate grinned and eased up in favor of owl entertainment.
Lying down beside the others,
it came to him that this was what he wanted to do--
guide boys and girls on adventures,
like how to feed a fire-lit soul and carve a path
through thickets that lay between them and being grown.
In the meantime, he determined to stay awake
with the creatures stirring around him,
watching for ways to venture into the dark.

For my father, Lloyd Lafayette, nicknamed “Fate” as a boy

Author: Merryn Rutledge
Website  |  On OMPJ

Photo: Jay Mullings on Unsplash