Hammerhorn Lake
by Michael Dylan Welch, John Thompson, and Garry Gay
First published in Hammerhorn Lake (Foster City, California: Press Here, 1995) by Garry Gay, John Thompson, and Michael Dylan Welch. Also published in 1999 in “The Long Way Home,” a sequence of poems and photographs on the Brooks Books website. Written 3–4 September 1994 on a camping trip at Hammerhorn Lake, California. Hammerhorn Lake lies at 3,507 feet (1,069 meters) above sea level in Mendocino County. The three of us camped at the shore of this lake and wrote rengay together all weekend. + +
dragonfly wing
caught in a mud crack—
mountain lake Michael
lizard sunning itself
on a swimmer’s boot John
over the mountain
a small cloud
and its reflection Garry
between parted reeds
coon tracks Michael
bleached snail shells
crunching underfoot—
a drifting waterlily John
the wind dies down
to a cricket sound Garry