clear

Which do you like better?

Tonight the stars were so bright the lake reflected them.
Tonight the lake reflected the brightest stars.
Tonight I watched the lake reflect the stars.
Stars; lake; reflection.

It was hard to choose sky or water.

Tonight nothing I write matters. All that matters is that the stars looked like they were falling, shooting, through the barely-rippling water. I have to write it because I can't watch them forever. The dock is damp on my back, I get cold. I wonder if I need a new contact prescription, I think I should learn the constellations, my mind wanders.

I try to fix the bowl of stars in my mind but I can't, not perfectly. And I can't write it perfectly, I can't put you there or keep myself there. I just keep grabbing at things.

The way the trees across the lake are reflected darker in the water. The one bright planet, yellowish. The Milky Way stretched from treeline to treeline. The frogs and the loons, calling.

Not enough, but all that is mine, all I can take with me, those details.