The Trail

by Bill Wampler

As I stood, staring at an old stone wall,
the sun shone softly off a
shiny little trail across the top.

My eyes, and my curious mind,
traced the trail from one boulder,
to another.

There, the shiny little trail
came to it’s creator.
And I knew it was so,
because, I looked, and there,
was a snail.
A snail, leaving his trail,
from one boulder, to another.

I pondered, where he might be going.
Not far, I thought,
it would take his lifetime.

And I wondered,
if there would be, another snail,
at the end of today’s trail,
to make his perilous, arduous, endeavor,
worth, his great, sustained effort,
to finally, arrive.