"tide down"

trekking through the muck,
mucking through the trek,
our intrepid traveller
tripped on a tree trunk,
and nearly snapped her
pretty neck.

Octavia began to lose
a bit of respect for
her solid step,
which started out featherlite,
quick, precise,
but by midday grew to
dull, dimwitted, and blind
as three mice,

'It must be this massive
backpack,' she surmised.

Octavia bought and accumulated
much too much damn stuff
and the things in her pack
made it a chore to hold them up

did she really need the 20 CDs found
in the bargain bin?
or the 100 pairs of socks she'd
got on just another whim?

'But I can't get
rid of it, I worked
hard for the cash
I spent'

And as the sun
began to set
she began mucking
through the trek again...

...and the next thing
Octavia put in her pack
put her back
into traction.

(read the title)