'the lake as read'

to enter landscape,
as a simple leaf in water's
slow growth upon the eye : like

the river in winter,
its contained, cold rage
dotted with orderly
frost flowers'

mute and regular
specking, meshed
with banked reflectives,

pale grasses fringing
a thin, watery nausea
seeping as if

from the physical
act of being here : as breath
as current recirculates

the involuntary flinch
from description's
responsibility : from

attending as record
this terrestrial
dankness : as wet

bare branches,
where recognition's
ember cannot spark,

where observation :
where the actual act
of looking : freezes

& its derelict
collage of stoats,
lupins, erosion

rerouts the eye
to emptier signs
of fire : a sun faded

BBQ chip packet
wandering along
the roadside :