The Great Salt Lake

Recently, I read about the problems the state of Utah is encountering with the Great Salt Lake. And that prompted a memory of mine from long ago.

The Great Salt Lake

beckoned my mother like a siren's

song.  Her fear of water receding

in the warm embrace of a desert lake

famous for buoyancy.   Eyes closed.

But I submerged below its surface.

                    Eyes open.

Her warning about saltwater roared

in my ears, echoed my throb,

shot eight-year-old me skyward.

Rubbing my stinging gaze

and flailing towards shore, I swore

I glimpsed gremlins smirking.

The same trolls causing havoc

with arsenic blowing

from the drying lakebed today.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor