UP A LAZY RIVER

Up A Lazy River
Age 37, Eno River State Park, Durham, North Carolina, 1981
-- This is one poem, from my autobiographical series of poems, that I posted here at WriteSpike. Go to my Stories section for others. They are in chronological order. --

Up a lazy river by the old mill stream...
Throw away your troubles, dream a dream with me
~ Louis Armstrong ~

Sundays were for stopping

Janet and I launched
our K-mart inflatable
just above West Point Mill
then floated upstream -
me gently rowing
barely having to put oar to water
as the river ran almost still

within minutes
the traffic faded
and the sounds of the forest
full of birds
opened to us
in the high hills

taking our time to go a mile
we crossed shallow slow rapids
before the river spread wide
to almost pond size

there cold water fell down rocks
rounded and shaped
by the flow of the stream,
pooling in this local swimming spot
where we often found friends
lounging and diving

on the pebble covered bank
we ate lunch
then climbed to the
sculpted stones
hot with the sun
and sat in the falls
before swimming

hours later when
long tree shadows
fell across the water
we headed back
letting the boat
find its way home

we drifted
with the downstream current
and the darkening hills
as the sounds of traffic became louder

drifting
to the edge of the old mill
where the dam still held the water

and
where our car was parked