summer retreat

like all deceptive surfaces,
the lake is beautiful…
waves rise and fall as if pushed
by undulations of
land mass underneath…heavy,
pregnant labor always
giving birth to motion, beauty
and life…

the people on shore eye it;
each seeing themselves;
each lost in memories, capturing another
moment, while the
indifferent water slaps the shore,
eagerly pursuing the limits,
greedily lapping time in ceaseless rhythm…

those who know it best will leave it first;
they have plumbed its depths,
ridden it in the swells of youth…
viewed the world in the
unnatural calm next to shore…
in the late afternoon sun,
waiting for the reflection of the icy moon…

but the lake doesn’t know…unaware
of the life that pursues it…
the comings and goings of the land creatures;
the eternal spring that feeds
the surface lies deep and inaccessible…

the land creatures fall prey to seasons…
the waters cannot sustain them forever;
but as they pass away, others rise to take
their place, keeping their own
rhythm, rising and falling, pacing here on the shore
where they renew hopes and dream
of futures, relive pasts, waiting for only for their last
view upon the shore…

soliloquies...
summer retreat
ja allen