The Shore of Lake Ontario
for Dr. Meloche
by Natalie M. Schubert
As boys, we would go out to the shore
of Lake Ontario and poke
at dead things with sticks,
watch maggots procreate from cardboard.
Winter wind whipped rivers to run
and we smudged them away
with the back of our gloves, back
to our tasseography with shoreline trash.
We slipped off shoes and socks,
wiggled mealworm toes through pebble-shore
and water, cold burning our skin as oil
boils martyrs live, but wisdom never dies.
Our teeth became frozen
stones, thawing into frogs
come spring, now sinking into mud—
blood-gums and imagination enclose jawbone truth.
As boys, we would go out to the shore
of Lake Ontario and gather
knowledge from nature. Dead with cold adventure,
we came back wiser, warmer men.
Natalie M. Schubert is currently an English and secondary education double major at Oklahoma State University. She is a three-time alumni of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute in creative writing. She loves finding wonder in truth, beauty, and goodness.
