Lake Willoughby

“Lake Willoughby” was published in the California Quarterly.

last day of summer break
Lake Willoughby
primal mountains
rising from crystalline deeps
sunlight slowed
filtering through
308 feet of blue

fields of black-eyed Susan
lonesome loons calling across
the mirror
dead pine reflection
a portal

boys learning to skip
every stone tossed
a tempest of ripples

today we fold
this expansion
into two suitcases

tuck the flaming birch
bone cold lake
percolator coffee

into the cups
of our children’s memories