LAKES, RIVERS, SEA                                                  (rsponse to prompt 12)

“I am haunted by waters.” Olivia Laing, To The River

 

I have never trekked the Ouse, never

visited the riverside, Sussex home

of Virginia and Leonard, never felt

river and sea merging at Newhaven.

 

But I, too, have been haunted

by waters.  Six weeks old, I was

packed up and stashed in a woven

basket; carried to Burt Lake.

 

The lake where I learned to fish –

perch, sunfish. Where I learned

to respect the power of water

(storms, shipwrecks, lost sailors),

 

learned to catch, skin, and fillet

fresh catch for supper.  And to fear

the sturgeon swimming in deep waters

under our small aluminum boat

 

with its 5hp outboard motor.

Have spent years skating on frozen

rivers, startled by its deep cracking

like gunshot, and fish embedded

 

in ten-foot thick ice.  Skated for miles

and hours, whisper singing, I wish

I had a river I could skate away on,

and almost succeeded, but the sharp cold

 

always brought me home,

I have moved inland and thirsted –

no sea, few lakes.  But mountains

kept me company, their streams

 

babbling and gurgling

in tune with blood.

 

Book: To The River, Olivia Laing

First line: “I am haunted by waters.”

Last line:  “We crossed the river then and pulled away, and in the empty fields the lark still spilled its praise.”