A gentle start
On a little beech clad path
As if in a park

Suddenly changes
As I find myself
Slipping
And tumbling
head over heels
Down a steep bank
And hanging
On my back
In a fork in the tree
That was just
Minding its own business
Growing out on a limb
From the side of the mountain

Then silence
“I hit my head on something soft”
I hear myself say
Checking limbs
No pain
Everything seems
To move OK
Once my friend has found her breath
She takes me through
The steps
To extricate myself,
With some puzzlement
Fuzzy thoughts and
Shaking fingers,
From the bits
Of my pack
Which get hauled up
The mountainside
From before the
Big rock that let me go

We manage to
Disentangle me
From the tree
With some assistance from a pole
Pushing a branch far enough
To lift my leg
Over it

I slide to the ground
And scramble
Up the slope
To be on the path once more
This time on the right side
Of the rock

Remedy to the rescue once more
For both of us
Sandie makes it safely
Over the rock
Assessment for damage
Renders surprisingly little result
Other than a couple of
minimal scratches
A very muddy
Backpack
And a shattered
Nervous system

Very thankful..
This could have been
So
Much
Worse