Friday, February 15th 2013

They say Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox carved the ten thousand lakes from their travels during a blizzard. Each lake a giant hole from Babe’s hooves or Paul’s boots. Scientifically the Great Lakes and all ten thousand in Minnesota were not really crafted by the giant duo’s travels, but I find it’s more enjoyable to imagine that landscape is formed by such folklore.

            Baum is full of puddles today. The snow has melted and a short burst of rain has left the mucus colored grass littered with puddles. I tried to find a place dry enough for me to sit, but every inch of the small park is wet and muddy. I walk around the grass a bit. My rain boots ‘splosh’ and ‘splish’ with each step. I walk around in a circle as the repeating sound trances me and then I am no longer twenty-four, but ten. I am not 5’9”, but eleven feet tall. I tower over the trees and my boot-covered feet are the size of a small house. With each step I begin to create the puddles and dips in Baum’s grass. I am the myth they will talk about when I am gone. My travels will imprint this place, this landscape.

My swampy imagination seizes when a car drives by and pulls me out of its thick layers. It is as if I have drunk that glass bottle labeled “reality” and shrink back to normal size. I laugh at myself for a moment and then decide to sit down and write. 

There has been a change in weather and I welcome it. I know it won’t stay long. Pittsburgh is notorious for it’s fickle weather. Rain one hour, snow the next, and if we’re lucky a bit of sun. Today it’s cloudy, but hasn’t rained yet. There’s always a chance it will within the next hour.

            Without the fresh coat of snow Baum looks and feels sleepy. The grass isn’t an emerald green or blowing in the wind. The branches of the trees are bare and the plants in the small garden are dried, tan, and feel crispy like the peelings of a dried ear of corn. Even the murky grey sky seemed to add a feeling of drowsiness to the park. I become anxious thinking about a season change and what will transpire in Baum when springs kiss awakens the landscape.