Late August.
Ducks vee into nearby reeds,
rustling toward flight
while elsewhere morning scrim slowly
rises from the lake,
loosening peepholes along the shoreline.
Pinpricks of light sample familiar mountains,
stone-outcroppings,
and bits of pale water.
Lopey ghosts,
those soft and racing sky-spirits,
skim above the steaming lake field.
On the lake’s far side, jagged trees
that jut in and out along peninsulas and coves
have not yet appeared
but what is stored in the known will awaken.
Published in the Middlebury, Vt. “Addison Independent,” 2019,
and “Rutland Herald” July 2019