Uploaded on July 23, 2011
It must be wonderful, they tell me,
to spend whole summers at the lake.
Hammocks, lounge chairs in the sun,
antique rockers on the porch.
So much time …
The envious ones dream on.
Long swims in clear water,
evenings reading before a crackling fire,
a movie-set summer.
What we do have time for would shock them.
Twelve gallons of water lugged each week
from the the Town Hall, groceries hauled
down the hill, bag by bag,
garbage toted to the pickup spot,
a three-mile hike to get mail and newspaper.
But maybe they are right.
In this setting we are modern kin
to Marie Antoinette—unaware—
playing at hardship
in a poster-perfect world.
—Elizabeth Hobbs
Poems from the Lake
07.23.2023: There were no cottages involved in this image. I took it on the way to or from a golf course when my son was playing before getting his driver’s license.