01-15-2026, 11:19 PM
Lake House
The tracks were laid a hundred years ago
to carry coal from nearby western states
and summer tourists coming from the east.
A playground for the restless city folk:
the grand hotel that burnt in 1912,
a child's amusement park with ride-on train
that wrapped around the boulders, through the grove.
Canoes and rowboats crossed the lake to reach
an outdoor stage and dance beneath the stars.
They started building summer bungalows
so just one trip could span the urban heat,
small wood framed boxes barely large enough
to load the kids in bunks and cook a meal.
A generation later, children raised
to cherish memories of nighttime swims,
friends' laughter floating on the evening breeze,
now questioned why they ever had to leave.
Additions here, additions there expand
each little shelter bit by bit until
each one becomes a piecework of a home.
The tracks were laid a hundred years ago
to carry coal from nearby western states
and summer tourists coming from the east.
A playground for the restless city folk:
the grand hotel that burnt in 1912,
a child's amusement park with ride-on train
that wrapped around the boulders, through the grove.
Canoes and rowboats crossed the lake to reach
an outdoor stage and dance beneath the stars.
They started building summer bungalows
so just one trip could span the urban heat,
small wood framed boxes barely large enough
to load the kids in bunks and cook a meal.
A generation later, children raised
to cherish memories of nighttime swims,
friends' laughter floating on the evening breeze,
now questioned why they ever had to leave.
Additions here, additions there expand
each little shelter bit by bit until
each one becomes a piecework of a home.