I reached the high edge in twilight time;
Shouldn’t have been up there
Far up Lassen’s ancient volcanic flank,
Alone as I was without a flashlight.
Way up through tangled, ticketed, zig-zag trails;
So many switchbacks, all shut down for winter.
I did it on impulse, and glad I was there;
In thundering silence. I quieted my breath.
A chasm below, a cast craggy incline above,
All blanketed with countless bone-white slabs.
Every so often as time slowly flowed,
A single slab would break loose to tumble down,
Clattering sharply in the high mountain air.
After five or so of these falls,
They came to check me out.
Me, a tall, solitary creature perched,
At the dimming end of the day, on a high rocky
ledge. They, a sleek, dark raven pair,
Sweeping around me, arching over the abyss,
Then slipping silently into the dense
Forest strand over to my right.
They had my full attention.
Waiting intently in the stillness,
I felt there would be more.
Time passed soundlessly. Two slabs fell,
And sure enough, then one of them
Came over to a tree close by, and unseen,
Started takling to me, not with the
Usual raven “chronk”. It was instead in
A novel (to me), intriguing click-pop dialect.
I answered “her” (so it felt), doing my best to
Get that tricky call down right.
The raveness called out back to me each time,
Patiently indulging my halting effort.
I got better as she responded,
As if correcting me as we went along.
But with darkness descending I risked
Being stranded up high up the mountain
Unprepared for early winter darkness.
Yet no way was I going to leave my click-
Popping raven teacher in mid-lesson.
A couple dozen or so reps and then she was gone;
I hadn’t actually seen her at all.
Then at once I started scrambling down
The switchback trail, eager to beat the night.
Yet sad I had never “met” my teacher.
And then, after descending rapidly
For several minutes, I was stopped in my
Tracks by the sound of a feisty click-pop
Right over my head. There she was
“In person” giving me a proper farewell.
I answered back as she gazed down on me,
Then she flew off and away.
And I in turn went happily “flying” down
The mountain from Chaos Crags,
Click-popping all the way to the bottom;
Just beating total darkness in the nick of time.