O Okeechobee

It’s a tradition at our annual Thanksgiving Day dinner to share a little talent with our fellow hikers. I hereby bring you a poem I wrote – and I don’t write them often – commemorating the hike and our friends who’ve gone before us.

Okeechobee

Mi-yam-i of the Calusa
Pay-hay-okee of the Seminole
Big Water
Big sky
Hikers strolling by
Okeechobee

Mournful whistle of the train
Rattle of the sandhill crane
Crackle
Snap
Burning sugar cane
Okeechobee

First rays of the rising sun
Pop pop pop of hunter’s gun
Tales thrice told
And then
Respun
Okeechobee

Mule path on an ancient ridge
Dike worker cabins at Taylor Creek Bridge
Ghosts of those
Who worked and lived
Okeechobee

We walk with Steve
And Sunny too
Connie, we can’t keep up with you
What’s that pain
Inside my shoe?
Okeechobee

Step by step
We walk the dike
Watch the morning born from night
As we talk
Our memories light
Okeechobee.

Author
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Sandra Friend

Author of 45 books, Sandra Friend established FloridaHikes.com in 2006 to expand on the field research she'd completed for her first six hiking guides. She has been honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Florida Trail Association and the Florida Outdoor Writers Association.