Lake Hopatcong

cool and protected from the
late July heat
the shallow brook traveled
through our backyard
through the vacant lot
through my life
couldn’t help getting down
on elbows and knees
to watch the barely-there ripples
water-skippers
the tang of minerals
and crawdads
stirred in the low breeze
those subtle sounds of life
caught in a temporal bubble
floating on a fragile sphere
of distant memory
encoding the final days
of my childhood