The Encounter

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

I heard it at the front door.

The front door!

This great scream.

It was, in fact, a scream,

And it begged me to

come running,

running on a large-shoed foot

of wonderment

and another of fear,

striding, one after the other.

What could it be? This thing that screams.

At my front door!

And there he was.

                I had asked for him only days before.

And there he was.

I grabbed my camera and headed after him.

Slowly, but fast too.

He looked back,

making sure I was there,

and sauntered.

He sauntered down the driveway away from the cabin.

No. He loped.

He loped down the driveway, picking up

his big (magnificent!) paws and letting me

count the pads below

and memorize their shape

and their position so that I’d know his signature

anywhere;

In mud maybe, or snow. By the creek. I’m sure.

And there he was.

There we were.

And, then, he leapt to the right,

bounding into thick greenbrier and up the mountain

slope he was gone.

He didn’t ask permission to leave.

Or, even gesture a “Goodbye.”

He was informal. The wild isn’t polite.

No one has ever told it to be and it wouldn’t be anyway.

But, there he had been.

And, there we had been. Together. Long enough

to know of the existence of the other.

Long enough to be able to say we had

an encounter.

How would he describe it?

Long enough for me to feel blessed

and him to feel whatever he felt.

I could claim that my prayer was answered.

I certainly can’t deny it.

I had so wanted to see a bobcat.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

Published in "Conversations with Mary: Words of Attention and Devotion"

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