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As summer exhales, a young girl navigates the river and her family
As summer comes to a close, I wanted one last trip down the Truckee River. This is a poem I posted on Medium about two years ago, as part of a 108-day poetry challenge.
In my overalls and t-shirt,
and my best worst sneakers, no socks.
I’d find a pole out in the woods
and I’d go get the inner tube and roll it to the shore.
It was way too hot from sitting in the sun.
I endured the goofy smell of baked rubber,
I endured the mosquitoes and the dust in my shoes
and the too hot of my clothes and the
long, spiky, crunchy, no path walk to
where I could finally set my burning
ride in the water, turn it over twice
to cool it off, and then get in.
I endured all that, and
I endured the getting in
because of how it felt once I was there.
Getting in was hard.
It was too shallow by the shore.
It wouldn’t carry me.
So I had to wade out to the middle.
I didn’t…
