Timberland

Wide the mirrored water stretched, licking green upon the pointed pines, limbs sweeping low and cool. The creek meandered, soft giggles escaping mossy rocks where polliwogs swam, nearly, but not quite frogs, still sporting pubescent tails; the adults pontificating against the shallow bank, throats swollen with amphibious wisdom. Soft brown mud squished, a buttered cream, between summer toasted toes wading into wonder. Fragrant evening campfires heightened hungers, supper roasting over charred coals flavored the stirrings of a tempting crush on a boy much older; this girl just barely navigating puberty's powerful push, his smile extracting heightened pulse, blush brushed. Life's long summer slipped slowly away and autumn found his wife and child laying him down, the plot unknown, unmarked by me; yet, painful, still, the memory of broken trust, of love-crust pitched to a not quite woman deep in the rusting woods of Timberland. Copyright, February 14, 2016