the spirit likes to dress up like this

Today the lake is high. The waves come right over the pier and slam into the neighbor’s patio with such lonely vigor – because they’ve been cheated out of their right to curl and fall on land rather than cement. Today I saw a woman digging in the ground. From far away it looked like she was making a giant gray cake, mixing something and then smoothing the tops with her large shovel. But when I got closer to her I realized that she was actually evening what she dug so that she could lay a sidewalk. I thought to myself, why can’t I lay a sidewalk? because I couldn’t. I don’t have the patience for that kind of evenness. And anyway I would rather there be a little hill or two in it, which wouldn’t make anyone happy but me and some kid who just got his first skateboard. Maybe we’d be enough.