I come soft barely to Burden Lake its
Birch shore and hear
Children across the water splashing fun
And a motor boat throttles back as it
Rounds buoys
I sit under a branch halfway that is asking to
Have its picture taken with
The water
Why not I say as the piper cub cuts
The sky’s corner and
The breeze takes the
Leaves on a lark like my mind
In fact if I was younger here I’d
Try to swim to
The island out there maybe
A fourth of a mile away floating
I believe on cedars
The fact that I’m not fully
Here and won’t visit again makes
The lake seems even larger
I see that someone has cut the grass around
Me and that brambles and
Cares are just beyond
Me and yes here come a pair of ducks uninvited
Thank goodness
How to prepare on
Burden Lake for right now or
For ever or for glistening especially
When I hold my breath in my arms while
The outboard motor waves from its deck
Hello
This poem was written on the shores of Burden Lake while Larew was a writer in residence at the Arts, Letters & Numbers arts center in Averill Park, New York, USA during 2023.
