Trailing

Don’t get scared or worried. Follow a cow trail. It’ll lead you to water or a barn. From there you can find your way home.

Those big red ants made trails through the grass, all vegetation for their single-minded march to and fro. You can tell which direction lay the nest by the ants that carried grain. If you run your foot across the path, disrupted it, the ants, carrying grain or not, would run around, disorderly, frantic.

Sometimes, I come across a cow trail and I’m relieved. I follow it, glancing ahead for a barn or stock tank. I wish for my cane pole. Some fresh catfish would be good for supper. It’ll just be good to get home, fish or no. Then, the trail ends at cement or asphalt, all of us milling about, no ant hill in sight.