It is Finally Summer
Jennifer Gurney
After forty days of rain
It is finally summer
I hike to my lake
Reveling in the raindrops
Clinging to every leaf and flower
The sun shining strong
Glistening in every
Tiny orb of rain
In a kaleidoscope
Of light
And color
And hope
As if nature itself
Is happy that
It is finally summer
I see the footprints
Of many
Different critters
Who have hiked before me
And left their signatures
In their footprints in the mud
Racoons
Deer
Rabbit
Dog
Birds
Horses
Many sizes of people
Layers of footprints
Make it seem
Like they were all there
At the same time
A party of animals
On the trail
Happy that
It is finally summer
I slip a bit
On the muddy embankment
Down to the lake
But catch myself in time
Before my jeans
Sodden to the knees
Are covered in mud
Like my old hiking boots are
I have to stop
Occasionally
To stomp off enough mud
To leave my boots free
To hike
At just this moment
I look up to see
A field full of wildflowers
Waving in the wind
Greeting me
On my hike
Many of them I have never seen before
Not just the fact that these are
A new batch of wildflowers this season
But the fact that I have never seen
These particular wildflowers before
Here
Or anywhere
Ever
In six decades of life
In living in various places
In knowing this field well
Remarkable
Unexpected
Enchanting
I cannot take enough pictures today
The hike is entirely
Different from any other
On this same path
That I have hiked
Often
Sometimes daily
Sometimes more than once in a day
For over four years
I hiked this trail
To this lake
As I healed from an
Unexpected separation
From the love of my life
Four years ago
When I first moved near
This sweet little lake
Which was so tucked away
That I didn’t know it was even here
Until the day I moved in
And saw a flash of white
Out of the corner of my eye
And looking through binoculars
While standing on my front porch
I saw a lake and
Pelicans!
I couldn’t have found any
Better surprise
If I had tried
That very day
I found my boots
And hiked this trail
To this lake lake
And fell in love
So I came back
Time and time
Again
Through the seasons
Through the years
To my little lake
To heal
To grow
To thrive
And today
It is summer again
And I am here
I hiked this trail
To this lake
During the pandemic
While I was teaching virtually
And after we returned in person
While I was trying to process
All that we were facing
And then
As I healed from all
That we all endured
During the pandemic
I hiked this trail
To this lake
When my Mom died
Two years ago
Unexpectedly from pneumonia
Just three days
From her diagnosis to her death
And no closure
Because of the pandemic
And
Because she was medicated
For the pain
I am grateful
That she did not suffer
But I didn’t get
To say goodbye
As I healed from
This sudden and profound
Loss that was a body slam
That no one could possibly
Have prepared me for
And it was on this trail
That I spoke with her last
And so I also hike it
To remember her
I hiked this trail
To this lake
When my Grandma died
One year ago
Expectedly
Since she was 104 years old
But so incredibly sad
Because she was my
Grandmother
My godmother
My best friend
And I had been lucky enough
To have her all these years
And to see her every week
Except for the lock-down time
And so I hiked to heal
From this second wave
Of inexplicable grief
My husband
My Mom
My Grandma
Gone
Wave after wave of fresh grief
RIght before and
Right during
A pandemic
So much
The touchstones of my life
And so the lake
Became my
touchstone
And as I hiked this trail
To this lake
Through these
Most difficult times
I healed
By being among
The resplendent beauty
Of nature
And growth
And rebirth
And day by day
My journey became
Just a tiny bit
Lighter
Until the next wave
Of loss
And grief hit
But then I would
Come to the lake
To refresh
And to lay my sorrows down
And leave
A little bit
Lighter
So I know this trail
And I know this lake
Intimately
Probably better than
I know myself
Truth be told
I know the twists and turns
And bends and curves
I know the sound of the river
The way the sky shifts
When clouds roll in
The texture of bark
On my favorite trees
I know where the baby skunk
Came onto the trail once
Several years ago
The places egrets nest
And the best time of day
To see the pelicans
When they are fishing
For a meal
I know when the river is full
And rushing
And when it’s a dry bed
Filled with leaves
Fallen
Slowly returning to the soil
To replenish the ground
For the next year’s
Bounty
I’ve also seen the changes
That are not nature made
But change the trail
And lake
In qualitative ways
I’ve watched
The beautiful barn being built
Set back from the trail
On the south side of
The lake
I loved hearing the hammers
Strike nails
As the walls were
Being set
And hearing the builders
Call to one another
From their high perches
As they laid on the roof
And now the horses
Walk the trail
Sometimes beside me
And on Christmas one year
One wore sleigh bells
That jangled from a distance
The sound muted a bit by the snowfall
That covered the trail
That covered the ice on the lake’s surface
That dusted the mountain peaks
In the distance
Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals, including Glitterati Quill with Spark, The Ravens Perch, HaikUniverse, Haiku Corner, Cold Moon Journal, Scarlet Dragonfly and The Haiku Foundation.
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