By The Lake In Early Spring

By The Lake In Early Spring
By Larry Anderson

My feet make a soft and muffled crunching sound as I walk slowly down the pathway carpeted with red pine needles and the rust-brown droppings of many white-tailed deer. As I look around through the tall, green, healthy pines on either side, I see glimpses of winter's snowy fingers still clutching at areas of the surroundings.

Scattered throughout are tall dead trees, standing naked, their trunks weather-beaten - their short and crooked branches like ragged arms - pointing off in all directions. Oak trees, stripped of most of their brown leaves, stand patiently in the shadows of their nearby brothers, awaiting the flow of sap and the new buds that will fill their branches with fresh, green life.

Long chunks of wet and rotting tree trunks lie here and there; their darkened shapes half-covered with thic...