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