Lake Winnipeg

this ocean placed

like a hand on the prairie

placid today pliant plush with memory

of fine fine sand sifting

through toes

as we walk and walk through shallows

waves rushing

of driftwood fires

lighting Pat beach on a summer night

of a boardwalk and dance halls

in earlier times

trains shuttling weekenders

for family time

of volunteers building the peers

that line shore every spring

each board finds its place

of fishers cresting waves

catching pickerel and goldeye

of agassiz glacier receding

leaving these basins south and north

and draining half a continent into northern bay