where cats & burros have gone

just above where i had been
i found a dead cat
lying in the stream

i suppose you might think
that would be a lesson
i could never forget

but many years later
far into the interior
of eastern old mexico
i was hot and thirsty again
and decided to drink
from a waterfall

it was wild country
after all
what could be wrong here

finding a place
where the falling water
was not so violent
off to one side a little
i drank deeply
until my thirst was quenched

making my way up
to the higher ground
a short while later
i crossed the same stream
above the falls

and there
to one side
exactly above the place
from which
i had quenched my thirst
was a pile of droppings
left by a burro

the droppings were very fresh
still green
not old & decomposing
as the cat had been
so many years before

ok, so i admit that i'm slow
not as quick to learn lessons
as i'd like to be
but i'm starting
to see a pattern here
starting to get an idea.

i see the moral or lesson
as being one of two things
and i think that both
have a certain merit or value

one is obvious
if you've had a good drink
and your thirst is quenched
don't go running upstream
to discover
something nasty in the water

the other lesson
might actually qualify
as common sense

or even wisdom
which would explain why
my brain is so slow

			verse