Every useful thing I learned,

I learned from living at the lake:

How to identify poisonous snakes,

How to get by on just two changes of clothes,

How to take my cast iron pan

And scrub it with sand,

And rinse it in the swift running creek,

How to sneak into your berry patch,

Unlatch your gate and stroll

Half naked along the trail that leads nowhere.

(And then again, maybe it’s just where no one’s been in a while.)

How to pull a stingy smile from your hard face,

And retrace my steps backwards so

That no one knows I’ve come and gone,

Yet well I know, so well I learned,

Where nowhere really is.

-jenn