Rosaleen Croghan
Lakes Minor Lakes Major
It sits this smaller lake this lake minor
like milk in a saucer in the flat border
lands between Mayo and Roscommon.
A child could stand up in it. A lake
that forgets why it ever began to be
there and so pretends to be asleep.
If it has fish in it they show themselves
very little. If it has an island in it I
forget it. No saints reach heaven
from it. No one drowns in it but that
wants to drown in it (a good place
for this as it happens) a death you
could walk up to and lie down in.
All is subfusc and understated in it.
All is good in it but not careful.
All is particular and ensconsed.
No one builds next to it
or arranges trips to it
or stays long at it
the water leeching underneath
the bank puts paid to that
the line between lake and land
a matter of mere principle.
A road excuses itself between it
and its twin the lake major.
In this great, lake fish swim
saints rise and suicide is sinful.
Sometimes because there is so
little in the difference we may
choose this lake road for preference
taking in both lakes at one swing.
And sooner or later as lovers often will
these two lakes the minor and the major
at swim within the vestibule of the rim
begin to forget themselves in one another.
Page(s) 35
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