The Lake

 

shimmers like the dream it represents

distant lights of Coeur d’Alene

a beacon of trust – we’re not in this alone.

 

Like many things

it’s not always what it seems.

we bathe in calm waters

fed by rivers from the hills.

 

Mines made money for a few

provided hard working jobs

buried deep within the earth.

 

Trickle down waste

washed to streams

 

flowed to pristine lake

but is 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-nots

 

invisible as a virus

politicized until those at the top

realize 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.