I was just five years old,

and Montana springs can be very cold.

It was time to go hunting for some

poor creature, men with rifles bold.

Off we trekked to the Bitterroot Valley.

A line of cars and pickups a mile long.

Hunting camp set up by the men first.

Then the women with bustle strong.

Daddy led me by the hand to a place

where the water was knee deep 

to a giraffe...but I had rubber boots with

a yellow ducky,  that never made a peep.

Suddenly adults were flying and crying,

running here and there in fearsome flight.

I did not understand what gave these folks

such a sudden and terribly awful fright.

Seems I stepped in a rattlesnake nest,

I thought they were cute little worms.

I wanted to get one for daddy’s fishing,

so I started to reach toward the squirms.

Now, baby rattlers can bite seriously,

but I had red boots with a yellow ducky,

and their furious little bites were not

able to bite, through boots...Lucky.

But those fingers reached out - well,

they were snatched by an aunt who wailed,

and no one told me why they were so tense,

to each other the story was detailed.

Innocent as lamb was I about those

reptiles that looked so cute and harmless.

I never knew my auntie had saved me

from being bitten and  being armless.