A Summer Ritual

Moonlight flicked it's gilded tongue
On the nipples of the lake
As she paddled from the shore
Leaving swirling,liquid wake

Captain of her ship at last
Rhythm held with ease
Stroking through The Narrows
Like a whisper on a breeze

Fireflies peeked in and out
Of the shade that we call night
They became her beacon
Her winged Brigade of Light

She listened to the bullfrogs
Relaying their throaty refrain
An owl's "hoo-hoo hoo-hoo wahhh"
Laid claim to his lofty domain

Hoping that she'd spot a moose
Taking an early dawn bath
Then meandering into the forest
On mossy, ancestral path

As she caught sight of her tiny beach
It glistened, it sparkled, and shined
Paddle resting across the bow
The world now left behind

The kayak slipped upon the shore
Her work was all but done
Save spreading her blanket on the ground
And waiting for the sun

The beach was strewn with granite rocks
Wild cranberries, and bleached driftwood
Somewhere out there a loon tremoloed
She'd mock it, if only she could.

Communing with Mother Nature
Then doing her Sun Salutation
This was Summer Solstice
This was exaltation.