A Field Trip
"...a field trip," Mrs. Reilly said.
"Tomorrow pack a lunch."
I felt an overwhelming dread,
A dark foreboding hunch.
Onto the bus all single file
With laughter shouts and cheer.
I try my best to force a smile.
My stomach twists in fear.
The ride is bumpy and remote.
It seems to last a week.
A tightness rises round my throat.
I cannot cry or speak.
The bus comes to a lurching halt,
A quiet eerie stillness.
My presence here is my own fault.
I could have feigned an illness.
Down from the bus the children get.
We follow to a field.
The air is cool but still I sweat.
My terror will not yield.
"Now gather round," Miss Reilly shouts,
"We're going to play a game."
I wonder at my early doubts:
Was all that fear in vain?
My perspiration chills as she
Produces a blindfold.
The teacher is my enemy.
She cannot be controlled.
"And now I need a volunteer."
I cower, bravery gone.
She points to me: "Come over here
And put this blindfold on."
I panic. Quick. No time for thought.
I'm sprinting. Fast. Away.
The trees. Protection. Don't get caught.
My instinct saves the day.
I hear my feet against the ground.
I hear my heart, my breath.
I hear the throbbing screaming sound
Of primal flight from death.
And now the sounds of other legs.
They're running after me.
They're hunters, I their chosen prey,
A grand conspiracy.
Dodge left. Now duck. The trees fly past.
The growing tribal noise
Of my pursuers, gaining fast.
Bloodthirsty girls and boys.
Over the hill, out of their sight,
a hollow tree awaits.
No time to pause, it's do-or-die.
It's this or fatal fate.
I edge between the rotting lips
The wormy wooden yawn.
The floor is soft, it cracks, I slip,
Deep in the trunk I'm drawn.
I see them from my hiding place.
I do not move or breathe.
They're circling, looking for a trace,
A trace I did not leave.
This tree whose walls around me loom,
My only place to hide,
Will ultimately be my tomb.
I cannot go outside.
And now trapped in this quiet black,
I live inside my head.
My lesson, I think, looking back,
Is learn to heed the dread.