There is a life on the lake where children sink
or swim, where the water is hardly still.
Where curious 7-year-olds beg their uncles and fathers
to take them to the lake, mouths full of ice cream and sprinkles
from the truck that sings an everlasting tune.
When the tune fades into the distance,
the children jump into the lake.
Ice cream set aside on a park bench.
The kids can no longer see their feet or hands, but
they will continue to laugh and splash around.
Willow swallows a mouthful of water,
Jesse screams as a fish brushes his leg,
Gina and Taylor pretend to drown.
In the end the kids get out of the water
to eat their now half-melted ice cream.
Music blares through the speakers on the land.
A band plays on the portable stage.
The children huddle together and bite their nails,
anticipating their very own performance next—
It went off without a hitch.
After everything is over,
and the kids grow up
and the ice cream melts
and a body is found in the lake
the children never get to return.