Jean Harrison
Sunday morning on Lake Balaton
Elusive blues, haze of splintered sunlight,
no edges, no hint of rays
bending off as they’re supposed to
to ripen grapes on an invisible hillside;
Yesterday the guide said, Sturgeon live here,
ridged snouts and monstrous eyes
in at most eight feet of water;
no sign of them
only a bell, clear and insistent,
Come and celebrate mystery,
What’s the point? It’s all so gloomy.
Out here morning sun
is drawing a cluster of masts
clear and sharp against the poplars,
angles of reeds, jag of boulders
black smuts that shape up as swans;
and I stare at a still surface
that plays me with dazzle
a sudden wind can scoop up
spray dense enough to drown a swimmer.
no edges, no hint of rays
bending off as they’re supposed to
to ripen grapes on an invisible hillside;
Yesterday the guide said, Sturgeon live here,
ridged snouts and monstrous eyes
in at most eight feet of water;
no sign of them
only a bell, clear and insistent,
Come and celebrate mystery,
What’s the point? It’s all so gloomy.
Out here morning sun
is drawing a cluster of masts
clear and sharp against the poplars,
angles of reeds, jag of boulders
black smuts that shape up as swans;
and I stare at a still surface
that plays me with dazzle
a sudden wind can scoop up
spray dense enough to drown a swimmer.
Page(s) 35
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