Souls by Water

by Daniel Lusk

     — after a painting by Sally Coppersmith

Out of our view overhead,
clouds like spinnakers.

Stippled lake giving way to shoreline
so there can be a place for these

women and girls in ribboned hats,
ears cocked for the possibility of sounds

the boy, who may have thought
himself the first ever to skip a stone.

As if they had come to remember us
and changed their minds.

Some will think them
the “coast guard” of this lake
with a preference for white.

Former people,
echo chambers of the spaces
where they stood.