On Losing a Lake

Most of the children said

that once the lake dries up

and a cracked bed remains

the thing they will miss most

will be the reflections

they are used to seeing in the water

Catherine said she couldn’t imagine the peaks and the sky

not being rooted in an inverted image of themselves

That it was awful to think of them rising from the mere ground

I prompted the class in the direction

of being concerned for our source of fresh water being gone

What will we wash in?

How will farmers cope?

What will we drink?

But on a recount of raised hands after my intervention

the disappearance of the ability of the reservoir to reflect

won hands down again  

After class at my desk their answer made me think

of death and of losing you my love

I don’t know why but it did

And the sense of it came rushing in like a flood