Lake with limestone shore: long
reticulated back of a brontosaurus. Thunder
Lizard, walk me into the waves.
You must know Gaasyendietha, meteor dragon; you
must share a closet of filmy dresses and brief
human encounters. Under water
I close my eyes as you swim through like
a retinal floater, like the whole lake is vitreous
fluid, including my aching right hip.
I don’t insist on seeing things and
wouldn’t tell my specialist this, but I
take these sights where I can get them.
Closed eyes, closed yes. Les yeux. Lake you.
Tanis MacDonald
Tanis MacDonald is the author of Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female, Mobile: poems, and five other books. She is a Professor of Canadian literature and creative writing at Wilfrid Laurier University, serves as the General Editor of the Laurier Poetry Series, and has hosted the podcast Watershed Writers for four seasons. New poems and essays have recently appeared in The Goose, Consilience, FreeFall, and Canadian Literature. A long-time free-range literary animal, Tanis lives as a grateful guest on Haldimand Treaty land, near the Grand River in southwestern Ontario. Please visit www.tanismacdonald.com for more.