Beautiful Day

There's a segment of Town Lake that's right next to my apartment. It's a winding gravel track surrounded by a lake. I like to go there and run or get away from my dim, air-conditioned hole of a living space. Elaborate fauna crowds the water's edge and different animals peek from under leaves every now and then.

Today I went to read on one of their benches, but it was a very active day and the animals begged for my attention. Six swans varying in size were cruising the bank on a small slope that people use to fish. They were so graceful and quiet, eating the bugs in their feathers and pleading for food with their stares. After observing them for a few minutes, I perched on a bench by the water where tall weeds intertwined with my view of the lake and I read. Noisy crickets chirped in the jungle of grape-looking vines to my left and soon the creamy swans came to visit me at my new location.

My area was not very shaded and after 15 minutes or so I began to perspire undesirably. I retired the bench and walked to another next to a massive tree with twisted roots that clawed into the shore. Blue dragonflies kissed flowers that dotted the greenery and a lanky worm wet with slime daggered in a crevasse of the tree's angry claws. I was temporarily satisfied with my spot; the wind from the water was silky and the tree protected me from the unwanted heat. Faceless animals dived from dry logs grazing the water's surface, but I could only hear the small splashes. The backless bench coupled with an uninteresting conversation prompted me to switch one last time.

I revisited the concrete slope on the water where small fish were nibbling on tan algae. Larger fish with white phosphorescent skin and spiky fins began to appear. They were beautiful fish. Their scales shimmered and I was reminded of 'The Rainbow Fish', a book with sparkly illustrations I read as a kid. As if I hadn't received enough nature for the day, two brown spotted ducks showed up. They had orange webbed feet and hidden purple feathers. I told them they looked like Daffy duck and proceeded in lonely conversation. They were funny, my new friends. They dug in the sand and produced clouds of brown smoke underneath the water that slowly diffused and caused the fish to swim away. I continued to read about how the Norse consumed their environment until there was no longer any resources left to sustain their way of living. It was a beautiful day.