Sweat

Today, while resting, I looked around and noticed a design printed on everyone around me's lower back. It looked like lungs. Lungs of sweat. I touched my own back in fear of whatever grotesque sweat-pattern had emerged from my skin. Only after I realized the extent of my back sweat did I come to terms of how well-deserved it was. I had spent the morning bounding through high ground covering plants, using them as clues to decipher the lives of those who were at Sewanee before me, and after pausing for lunch, I hiked through the Cumberland Plateau and observed the diversity of the habitats there, all in high temperatures with still, humid air. No wonder I was so sweaty.

Simona Zappas