The Lake on Marpol Ridge

Location

Butler Park
Marpol Ridge Lake
United States
37° 5' 24.864" N, 95° 42' 46.4076" W

The lake on Marpol Ridge

is an excuse.

It is the thought of accomplishment.

The whispers in the grass

and the feather-fluttered dirt

convince the creators

that if they just take a moment

to settle on the bench

and peer out at the pillow puffy horizon,

those droopy dogwoods,

that mirrored water,

something more than old leaves

and used-up dandelion wishes

will reflect back at them.

The lake is a magnet,

it is a lure.

Pulling the hopeless and searching to it’s lively edges

as if there are thousands of charged,

glittering minerals

gliding beneath the surface of each scum-layered

ripple.

The lake is a mother

of drifting ducks and gluttonous crows.

It’s a welcome mat to bare feet

and tennis shoes

pounding the uneven path

that circles runners round and round

going somewhere but nowhere.

The lake is a meeting ground

where neighbors and intruders

converge alike.

It’s a swelling of the sky

where soft, wet drops are sent to land in the

ridges of your eyelashes

and a sweet and satisfying taste melts on your tongue

when you tilt back your head.

The lake smells like honeysuckle

and algae-covered rocks,

warm and damp,

from a late-summer drizzle.

Tangles of old blackberry bushes

and a tricycle with a missing pedal

clutter the trodden earth

that leads to where you’re headed.

More than anything, though, the lake on Marpol Ridge

is an excuse.

It’s a hope

that your mind will take flight on the wings of those

leaving,

instead of setting you back adrift the dark, empty canals

where you arrived.

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