Lake of Loss

Jim LaVilla-Havelin

June 8, 2025

On the day we all drove out to see the eclipse

                             and got there way too early

        we drove around the hilly 

countryside

dipped down a turning road

                              to see Medina Lake -

Medina Lake almost emptied

                              from the drought

piers sticking out into thin air

      all their leggings showing;

the waterline like a bathtub ring

      the vista from the sealed-up


seafood shack just an arid 

                               empty that was once 

a lake


when we got back 

to the eclipse party

we got to watch

a grey sky get grayer


the whole sky an emptiness

we’d counted on;

peering into a staggered

somewhat natural world.




Jim LaVilla-Havelin is the author of six books of poetry. His most recent, Tales from the Breakaway Republic, a chapbook, was published by Moonstone Press, Philadelphia, in May 2022. LaVilla-Havelin is the Coordinator for National Poetry Month in San Antonio.

Previous
Previous

texas dreamscape

Next
Next

The Cormorants