spirit lake

the black and white photo
of us wet in our bikini's
at spirit lake

a flood of memories
how cold the water was
a fish nibbled at your toes
you screamed
you didn't want to go in

i thought mt st helen's
had filled it up with ash
deleted it from the map
but someone told me
they had recently been
to spirit lake

we went out in uncle Darrell's
salty dog-he let us drive it
speeding over the service
with the wheel in my hands
captain in control
of the dark blue pool
called spirit lake

at night in the camper van
playing cards-i never win
your strategy's too good
and looking out the windows
at the pitch black night
you think it would be scary
but it seemed kind of exciting
will the spirit come out
of spirit lake

and waking up to aunt harriet's
coffee and pancakes
and the sky that named the colour blue
we couldn't wait to get dressed
go out
on that soft bed of pine needles and scent
and hope we saw some chipmunks
on the way
to spirit lake

how the memories flood
back just from looking at a photograph
i am so lucky that
we went
to spirit lake