Lurking

Weren’t we coasting along 

into a lake cove and settling 

in for some needed shade

when we took this photo?  

 

We noticed this spot of enduring sun

in the broil of shore swamp and spike

of deadwood rot, 

    some terrible green world

 

suspended magically,  

just under the rippling surface,

enlivened quite more 

by the camera’s will perhaps. 

          

A hue of green, 

 an un-green I’m still sure

shouldn’t just happen naturally, 

seeming to me purely alien. 

 

Or at least contaminated, glowing 

in a manner that might have killed us 

 

on the spot, as in some science fiction film, 

were we to have jumped in and swam too closely.

 

But I coasted by, curious

for only a moment, the photo taken, 

a confirmation of unnaturalness

lurking there, 

          known only to our notice

and the camera,  

 

seeing no reason to alarm the others

interested only in the unburdening 

powers of an afternoon’s shade trees.     

-Larry Thacker