Lake

– Gael Turnbull*

I remember once

in a far off country

it doesn’t matter where

or even when

it had been a hot day

and a lot of work to be done

and I was tired

I stopped by the road

and walked across a field

and came to the shores of a lake

the sun was bright on the water

and I swam out from the shore

into the deep cold water

far out of my depth

and forgot

for a moment

I forgot

where I had come from

where I was going

what I had done yesterday

what I had to do tomorrow

even my work

my home

my friends

even my name

alone in the deep water

with the sky above

and whether that lake was a lake

of the shore of some great sea

or some lost tributary of time itself

for a moment

I looked through

I passed through

I had one glimpse

as it happened

one day in that far off country

for a moment

it was so

* Gael Turnbull, There are Words: Collected Poems (Exeter:Shearsman Books, 2006), 211-212.