It was Blue Mountain Lake
and summers shared with sibs
and cousins. It was Skaneateles

Lake and walking down
to Borodino landing with Jody,
swimming in the village park

with Catherine. It was the long 
drive from Cincinnati to Chase Lake
in the Adirondacks where

I arrived, exhausted, instantly
revived by the smell of recent
rain dripping off pines.

It was the day long drive
to the shore of Lake Michigan,
the body of water that curved

at the horizon, that catapulted
me back to childhood, and the lake
my Grandma called Ontario Ocean.