Return to ‘Sloppy Floyd’ State Park by Jennifer Susan Smith

I can’t go there today, but maybe
in a starburst season, a sojourn pristine.
the lake plunged too dark last autumn.
my knee length sweater weighted heavy;
my ankle boots too burdensome
to walk the lower lake loop.
for now, I find shallow water
and sit on a rock facing west,
a creek exhilarates my bare feet
as it winds through a hidden valley.

Sun bathes my revealed shoulders,
my stooped shoulders,
frees me with fortitude,
so that I can stand straight again
to walk purposely on any path
and finish the trails.
so that I can sit up straight again,
drive again on back roads
twisting to the park,
toward hillside ferns near lakeshore.

Author’s Note: In appreciation of the healing, natural beauty of James H. “Sloppy” Floyd State Park in Summerville, Georgia—Chattooga County.

“Return to ‘Sloppy Floyd’ State Park” first appeared in Zest of the Lemon.

Jennifer Susan Smith, a retired speech-language pathologist, resides in northwest Georgia. Her work, “Small-town Recollections”, was a first-place co-winner in the City of LaFayette, Georgia’s Community writing contest.  Jennifer’s writing is published in The Bluebird Word, WELL READ Magazine, First Literary Review-East, and San Antonio Review. Her grief writing sample will appear in Letting Grief Speak, by Diane Zinna through Columbia University Press. She is chairman of Alpha Delta Kappa Pages and Pearls Book Club and holds membership in Chattanooga Writers’ Guild. When she is not writing, Jennifer enjoys listening to audiobooks and walking in beautiful places.

**Featured image credit from Unsplash