Burn Lake

Burn Lake

BY CARRIE FOUNTAIN
For Burn Construction Company
When you were building the i-10 bypass,
one of   your dozers, moving earth
at the center of a great pit,
slipped its thick blade beneath
the water table, slicing into the earth’s
wet palm, and the silt moistened
beneath the huge thing’s tires, and the crew
was sent home for the day.
Next morning, water filled the pit.
Nothing anyone could do to stop it coming.
It was a revelation: kidney-shaped, deep
green, there between the interstate
and the sewage treatment plant.
When nothing else worked, you called it
a lake and opened it to the public.
And we were the public.
Notes:
This poem originally appeared in “Poetry Not Written for Children that Children Might Nevertheless Enjoy,” by Lemony Snicket.
“Burn Lake” is copyright © 2010 by Carrie Fountain and used by permission of Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (usa) llc.
Source: Poetry (September 2013)