An Adventure Not Worth Repeating
We were just kids at the time.
We didn’t know what was dangerous & what wasn’t.
It was decided we would explore an old mine.
Five of us headed out with sack lunches.
We rode our bikes about five miles.
Then, we hiked down an old dirt road.
It went down the side of a hill. We had smiles.
The feeling of a new adventure was a real goad.
We went for about 2 miles. There it stood.
A big black hole in the side of the hill.
There were old mounds of dirt and wood.
What appeared to be rails, remained still.
The kind ore carts would be rolled on.
They disappeared down the middle of the mine.
It was very dark inside. Not far in light was gone.
We started in with lights, taking our time.
It wasn’t long till we came to a branch.
Three of us went on straight ahead.
The other two went right, a smaller tunnel.
The two of us went on, watching our head.
After awhile, it narrowed like a funnel.
Quickly, we came to a huge cave in.
By lights, we saw we could climb up and over.
It was a very low space to fit in.
We crawled up and over a pile of boulders
Once past the cave in, we continued on.
The tunnel curved to the right
After a good distance, it was water, we came upon.
We decided to wade on in. Right.
It soon was up to our waste but, we kept going.
We tripped on something. It was submerged rails.
We went on. If we had a boat we could be rowing.
Then we saw lights & heard voices. We yelled a hail.
It was our three buddies. We had made a circle.
They were at the water’s edge.
We had scared them enough to make their blood curdle.
Their tunnel went straight. .Ours cut off, like a wedge.
Their tunnel was flooded from there on.
We decided we would not explore anymore.
The water was real cold, with mud that made a bond.
When we got out, we had our lunch, and more.
We exchanged tales of how we felt.
We told the others of crawling over the cave in.
We acted brave. Didn’t really say how we felt.
We said we would not tell where we had been.
just in case we ever decided to come back.
That never happened. I think we were scared.
Now, years later, we can talk about our track
we laid down when we were young & didn’t care.
———————————————R. W. Johnson—–(2015)
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