I did not believe the collared man

When he commanded me to gaze

Upon the lake facing south

Behind the sanctuary towers

For as a child I had imagined

Great sea monsters in weeds

And was dashed upon the rocks

As a broken youth

But now in the season’s turn

After being thrust upon the shore

I saw what I could not while

Resisting the tide of other bodies





The light must have been angled

In the current’s favor

Or the wind must have held the waves

At the perfect rippling height

For the water shone with a divinity

From within itself

Not just from from the church’s alignment

The late sun flared and reflected

Creating winking golden caps

On timid crestfallen breaks

And even from my post

I could peer beneath the surface

And into the darkening depths





Underneath I saw understanding

Benevolence at the bottom

A higher knowledge bubbling upwards

Lapping truth upon the shores

The lake was a deity

His aquatic presence

Always there, surrounding us

As it always had been

For so long we searched our cyan skies

But I have found Him in the water

In a different kind of blue