Yellow Gold (Fiction)

It was black as ink a frigid 40 below
And now I never had a friend,
I was 40 miles away from home
The cold had nearly done me in.

Life can take many twists and turns
With choices you need to make,
But sometimes it's just out of control
And you didn't even make a mistake.

I tried to do my very best
To live with goal and plan,
But you can't figure every circumstance
Or the complex illusions of man.

Mike and I had mushed up north
Our goal was to stake a claim,
We built a cabin, then panned the creek
In ten days, we found the strain.

Gold, it was, yes yellow gold
We dug and washed with glee,
But the fever it took hold of Mike
Then it grabbed hold of me.

When fall arrived we should have left
Winter season is the cruelest they have,
But we kept working that yellow vein
Like two miners that were mad.

Then one morning Mike was gone
He had left with gold and all,
So there I stood in the cabin bare
Late October, the end of fall.

A hundred miles north in the bush
Plus the snow would fall any day,
My thoughts, I’ll never make it home
I would need my dogs and sleigh.

I didn't think I had a chance
But my pa didn't raise any fool,
So I hoisted up my backpack
Though I knew this hike would be cruel.

I made good time those first few days
But then the snow it came,
It drifted over 2 feet deep
It made me stop to kill game.

I skinned the elk and had fresh meat
Then made snow shoes for the trail,
In the morning I started once more
But my pace was like a snail.

It was a full week I battled this
The snow the cold gray,
But as I fought over the ridge
It was there I saw the sleigh.

It looked like Mike had over sped
So a runner had caught a tree,
This spun the sled into the bush
Then he fell and broke his knee.

The sleigh was smashed with two dogs dead
He’d made a splint of wood,
One sleigh runner is what he used
The only one that was good.

Then I followed on, his trail was plain
But the snow was four feet deep,
six miles more he played out
Because there he lay in a heap.

I saw no signs of my other dogs
But they were likely on a hunt,
If you're going to survive in a harsh winter land
You can't remain the runt.

I remembered all the gold in the sleigh
But never even looked back,
I didn’t even want a little of it
As I thought of the weight of the sack.

I covered Mike as best I could
With no marker there to see,
I held no grudge against him now
As the yellow had also, got hold of me.

Then days turned into weeks
As I walked and stumbled on,
Suddenly, somewhere I heard a bark
Then my dogs were me upon.

I'm not sure what they thought
But this reunion it was grand,
And so on we went from death’s veil
Though I could barely stand.

The northern lights were shinning down
With my dogs my only friend,
Mostly I was crawling now
And knew I was near the end.

But suddenly there was an old cabin
Standing still in straight,
It even had a little yard with
A fence and an open gate.

I just lay there in the snow
And figured it was a dream,
But the dogs were there checking it out
Some things aren't what they seem.

I built a fire in the hearth
I cooked some rabbit stew,
I fed the dogs, then went to bed
For maybe a month or two.

Later I followed along the river
Knowing where it would lead,
But I felt I'd walked all winter
From my mine of yellow gold and greed.

So let this be a lesson son
Or whoever reads this fold,
I've done my best to warn you all
About the fever, of the yellow gold.

No comments yet.