The Lake

 

shimmers like the dream it represents

distant lights of Coeur d’Alene a beacon

of trust – we’re not in this alone.

 

and like many things

it’s not always what it seems.

we bathe in such calm waters

fed by rivers from the hills.

 

mines made money for a few

provided hard work and jobs

buried deep within the earth

 

trickle down washed to streams

flowed into pristine lake

hidden from view

way down on the bottom

 

like trickle down economics

as the gap widens between

rich and poor

healthy and sick

haves and have not’s

 

invisible as a virus

politicized until those at the top

realize that they can’t imagine it away.

 

that reality is more than what they think

 

the rest of us dive down to the bottom

and wonder why the water seems

a lot murkier than you’d expect.