Unless you are determined
all you know of lake
is a foot or two beneath the surface.
You might just know alewife spawn
circling your ankles.
Unless you dive
to follow loons,
into darkness, into deepening,
cooler water — light
dim and mud-colored.
Gliding on the surface
you won’t know beneath —
trout and pike, eels,
even deeper Chelydra
serpentina.
Snapping turtle.
In our gliding lives
there is so much
we do not know
—
Sydney Landon Plum is a retired Adjunct Professor from the English Department of the University of Connecticut, after more than 20 years teaching. Solitary Goose, her essays about life near a small pond, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2007. At UConn, she co-chaired the committee establishing a major in Environmental Studies. She continues to wrestle with essential questions in writing about nature in her new environment in Northeastern Ohio.
