CHAMP’S ISLAND

Between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks
is a lake that was once a sea.
The lake is awesome in its beauty
but is also an intriguing mystery,
with secrets we still don’t know about it
or of the creatures that live deep
down in its murky waters,
come to its islands at night,
hide in the caves by day beneath the waves
out of the human sight.

In the lake there is an island that
at night is obscured by fog and damp.
It rest upon a rock ledge cave
and is the home of Champ.
You haven’t heard of him?
He is the Champlain Monster,
that something seen and yet unseen,
perhaps an ancient dinosaur,
or some cousin maybe.
There is something out there
that resembles a dinosaur
but if any of them still exist,
no one knows for sure.

There’s been a lot of speculation.
Someone named an island after him,
though the name is not official,
some folks think this might have been
the island where our Champ was born,
came from a giant, pearl-like egg
one early, foggy morn in spring;
At least that’s what I’ve heard said.
The island is where Champ learned to play,
to dive and fish and swim.
Folks are so sure that he exist,
there are laws protecting him
from danger or harassment
in Vermont and in New York
and any sightings you may have
you are obligated to report.

Now I don’t know, I’m not quite sure
exactly what it was I saw
one summer night on Lake Champlain,
a something moving through the fog
just off the shoreline to my right.
As I looked toward the island
it slid into the water
and then dove out of sight
causing barely a ripple,
a few waves and not much more.
Maybe what I saw was Champ
but I don’t know for sure,
only that I was looking at Champ Island
and it might have been him,
Champ, the Champlain Monster
going for his nightly swim.

Champ Island, the home of a lake monster
between New York’s Adirondacks
and Vermont’s Green Mountains;
He seems gentle, eats only seaweed frogs and fish
and spurts water like a fountain.
On the island is a giant rock
that seems to have scaly skin.
Maybe it is just a rock
or maybe it is him.

Annette Bromley
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