LEE’S DEATH ANNIVERSARY

They say that the Appalachians are the oldestmountain chain in the world, and that our HillCountry through gorgeous Central & SouthwestTexas in the river canyons we live in or lookare part of that same Appalachian chain. There weretectonic plates that nudged each other and literallybroke some of the hills in half. I have ridden mymule at the top where the hill had split thousandsof years ago, or millions, on a path between twojagged swaths of flint that follow the top of the cedarscrub’s big tough gorgeous hill. I have followed Leeand Ray there, getting bruised and trailing blood butthat is the price you pay to overlook Silver Lake onthe Moody Ranch which more mountain lions havewalked than men have…My family broke just likethat. There was some hiccup in the tectonic platesof this earth and 3 were gone plus my mule in theshort span of years…Once we were 5. Now I amthe only one in Uvalde, looking to that broken hill inmemory…all I can do is feel its beating heart thatfills up all our days, and beyond. I was so naive. Ibelieved a great deal of Paradise was right here,paid at the cost of bruises and blood, when I feltthe beating of my mule’s heart between my legs,knowing this was not Paradise but about as closeas you can get, Lee and Ray and the mulesand me, a silent breathing in all of us, almost timed bysynchronicity…Quiet. Reverentially quiet. The muleslove a great view and stare at it too, motionless,eyes and ears fixed. I am also now that brokenmountain, split in half by so many deaths. I couldtake anybody to it, I could show anybody, but thatscarred-along-the-spine broken mountain one of theoldest on earth, still stands. I do too. Barely.