Do You Remember?

MindLoveMisery's Menagerie

Prompt words in red.

Do you remember when…

We hiked the forest

deer paths winding

high upon Mount Lassen,

plunging our sweaty feet

in the glacier melt

waters of Lake Helen?

Do you remember what…

You said to me that day?

Your smile sly,

yet with a trace of

shyness,

a sprig of wintergreen

hidden from my view appeared,

your pledge of everlasting love?

Do you remember how…

Our mouths would drip

with sweet red juices

from Juneberries along the stream,

or the taste of clean clear water

greedily guzzled from

cupped hands?

Remember...

hands we held along the paths.

Hands we held as we

lay side by side on sun-warmed slabs

of granite stone,

naked, as the summer breezes

dried our lake-wet skin.

***

Your hands no longer touch with soft caress,

instead with stinging slaps,

and words with much more sting

than a nest of angry hornets

disturbed upon Mount Lassen.

The Versesmith