The Lake of Death
21st Century
Long it stood hidden from human eye
Between the mountains impassable
And the desert forbidding.
Once it was a source of life,
But now blackened with death's ire,
It lies untouchable.
Snuggled between luscious sycamores,
The waters seem lovely, glinting,
But to the daunting pine
Whom there dare dwell,
The wiles that are its malign
Speak loud, clear.
Requiems hideous greet
Those whom are the lake's part:
The dying and the dead.
'Twas not his fault nor her fault
That there, there wretched,
There out of earth unending
Nature chose to place them.
Their skin burned,
Limbs gnarled circuitously,
Once beautiful locks stripped.
Therefore, stands the lake death
In death's tenebrous shroud,
Surrounded by those whom
Live in distance,
And those whom perish close.
There it stands, still standing,
Without wake or ripple,
Devoid of life,
And hoping someday
Its poison be pured.
DayPoems Poem No. 2262
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/2262.html">The Lake of Death by Brian Okabayashi</a>
The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor
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