• POETRY •

Devil’s Advocate

“Lake Budi, in shadow, dark and heavy stone,

water among the vast unburied forests,

there you opened yourself like an underground door..”

– Neruda, from “Swan Lake”

 

Devil’s Lake below frozen and creased

by footsteps and fishing holes,

milky white and cratered, the cut center

of a wild gemstone, lifted

up from its own underworld depths,

we look back over our own rising steps,

over the placid and bald quartzite stones,

and as we rose up, it felt, at times,

that it was through false channels,

up through the slender pines leaning out over ledges

we touched lake mirror sun.

Later, descending, the rock tangle

familiar, the creases and cave holes warm,

the cold lake below an offering

not of absence but water spirit fire forever young,

and then, what wild wings of a single

eagle chased the cold spirits back below

the surface where the fish eye shone.