The Lake by Deborah Ager
The yard half a yard,
half a lake blue as a corpse.
The lake will tell things you long to hear:
get away from here.
Three o'clock. Dry leaves rat-tat like maracas.
Whisky-colored grass
breaks at every step and trees
are slowly realizing they are nude.
How long will you stay?
For the lake asks questions you want to hear, too.
Months have passed since, well,
everything. Since buildings stood
black against sky, rain hissed from sidewalks
and curled around you.
O, how those avenues once seemed menacing!
I know what you miss
sings this lake. Car horns groaning
in rush hour. Sweet coffee. Wind
pounding like hammers. Warmth of a lover.
Crickets humming love songs to the street
half a lake blue as a corpse.
The lake will tell things you long to hear:
get away from here.
Three o'clock. Dry leaves rat-tat like maracas.
Whisky-colored grass
breaks at every step and trees
are slowly realizing they are nude.
How long will you stay?
For the lake asks questions you want to hear, too.
Months have passed since, well,
everything. Since buildings stood
black against sky, rain hissed from sidewalks
and curled around you.
O, how those avenues once seemed menacing!
I know what you miss
sings this lake. Car horns groaning
in rush hour. Sweet coffee. Wind
pounding like hammers. Warmth of a lover.
Crickets humming love songs to the street
I really took a liking to this poem in particular because it’s a very familiar description and so near and dear to my heart. The reason I chose Deborah Ager was because she is a younger poet and it’s much easier for me to relate to her poetry, interpret her work, and truly understand what she is trying to portray to the reader. My father lives on a lake and it seems that every word the author has written has captured my exact emotions towards being at that lake. I love the vivid words to describe simple things like, “whisky-colored grass” and “half a lake blue as a corpse”. It painted an elaborate picture in my mind and really drew me into the poem and made me want to read the line over and over again. I also find it fascinating when a poet is able to find words that can describe a feeling that you can’t quite put your finger on. Not only do I enjoy when the author uses vivid words, but I also love when they’re able to describe inanimate objects as if they were real such as in the last stanza, “I know what you miss sings this lake”. I almost feel as though that’s what is running through my head as I stare off into the distance on the porch of my father’s lake house. This poem really captures everything there is to experience in that moment, on that lake.
