"There is a lake in Tanzania
That turns everything it touches into stone—
Petrified animals washing..."

“There is a lake in Tanzania

That turns everything it touches into stone—

Petrified animals washing up on shore.

I’ve known people like that:

Who drag loved ones into their waters

And send out dead things with the tide.

People who walk into your life

With poison fingers and Midas touches

That leave hearts hardened and calcified.

People who spit back love covered in salt.

.

I have walked back alleys and lost loves

That looked red and cracked like the water.

I have seen people

Who are calm and flat like the lake.

I have watched Beauty

Break Trust over her knee

And lay her, gentle, on the shoreline.

I have been among the bodies

Left crumbling in the waves.

Because sometimes, no amount of knowing

Is enough to keep you from the water.

Sometimes, the desire to drink

Is stronger than anything else.”

- Lake Natron, by Ashe Vernon
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Published on September 03, 2015 23:00
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