Space above and beyond this lake awakens
impersonal memories of how to listen
with crow’s wings and how to see the trails

in air that dried leaves left behind.

We, not air, cough as if what falls inside
forgets how to reside in peace. Space
above everything reminds us
of the calm in simple words.

* * *

But without Bachelard’s dense words being read here

maybe not even space alone could shake awake
these resonances. A soul depends upon
reading words without walls to give it form.
The lake gives no clear signs of its namesake
Joe Pool except to see in a lake a pool.
A few inches from this bench a fence of simple
two-by-twos has etched in its face "MIKE MATERN."
The name names the fence with less sense

as across the lake atop a hill stands a mushroom-sized
water tower built by Rene Magritte who has painted
the words "Bridge" on its side or face or wall.