SERENE LAKES' SUMMER GOODBYE

They're calling us kids to get into the car

"hurry, up, hurry up", we have to drive far

down the mountain to get back to town

it's so hard to leave our cabin, cosy and brown

As the bark of a fir tree, the cone of a pine

I'll miss the trees and this house of mine

by the shore of little Serene lakes

summer's now gone, it's time to awake.

We played at our lake, my sister and brother

as did our grandpa, and later our mother.

sometimes we swam, and sometimes we boated

we'd paddle about in whatever floated

We'd climb up the hill, rocky with tuff

a long ago volcano made it so rough.

we'd take our time walking along the whole ridge

of the hillside, which seemed like a bridge

To another time, as the rocks told the tale

of people and oxen on the emigrant trail

of tribes who hunted in meadow and glade

and made pictures on stones, lest memory fade

I remember that last summer with grandfather still

we sat outside, all bundled up 'gainst the chill

of the night, and gazed at stars flung 'cross the sky

Grandpa held me so close, as I started to cry.

"The fish in the water, the moon up above 

the woods all around us, our family's love

these are permanent, these things endure 

of this you will always, always be sure,"

He said as he held me, my head on his shoulder

his voice once so firm, now sounding much older

my grandpa who taught me to fish and to sail

it was hard to see grandpa becoming so frail.

Then winter's snows came, the weather much colder

and as the year aged, so grandpa got older

and then early one morning, 'round about dawn

my mom and my dad said grandpa had gone

I thought of the starry sky over our lake

the ripples of water from our boat's wake

my grandpa who seemed as big as a bear

swatting mosquitoes out of the air,

Rowing to the small islands- Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

that's what he called us, his face lit with a grin,

life flows strong like a river, fast like a stream

sometimes it seems that it's only a dream

When I am older, if I have a child

I hope these lakes are still here, lovely and wild

reminding us all of all we hold dear,

water glinting and sparkling, ice cold and clear.

KTG

*****

Serene Lake's heritage is threatened by out of control development. Please work to protect the future of Serene Lakes, Van Norden Meadow and the headwaters of the South Yuba River, and Serena Creek and the headwaters of the North Fork American River.