Where the Water Was

Same road out, same bad turn where the sign came down in the storm.

Same tape, and the tape is now a thing my daughter finds hilarious.

Windows down, arm out, doing that thing with your hand in the air

that everybody's father did before there was anything else to do.

And you come round the shoulder of the hill and the whole valley opens up,

and there it is, and it is beautiful, and it is a long way down.

There's a dock out there standing in dirt like a pier for a joke,

and the boats are up on blocks in a field that used to be the bay.

And we still drive out to where the water was!

Windows down, same road, same songs!

The lake's a long way under where it was —

and we still drive out. We still drive out.

Where the water was!

We still drive out.

There's a line on the rock where the surface used to sit,

bleached white and about the height my father used to be.

I swam off that ledge at eleven and I couldn't touch the bottom.

You can walk to it now. In shoes. It takes about a minute.

And she's out on the flat with a stick, absolutely delighted,

because she's never seen it full and to her this is the lake.

This is a lake. That's what a lake looks like. Why would she think otherwise?

And that took the legs out from under me more than the water did.

And we still drive out to where the water was!

Windows down, same road, same songs!

The lake's a long way under where it was —

and we still drive out. We still drive out.

Where the water was!

We still drive out.

So I took her over to the rock and I put her hand on the line.

I said, that's where it came up to. All of it. All the way along.

Not to make her sad about it. She's got the whole thing ahead of her.

Just so she knows what full looks like,

because you can't miss a thing you never saw,

and somebody has to hand it over.

So we still drive out to where the water was!

Windows down, same road, same songs!

And it's the best day we've had in about a year —

and we still drive out. We still drive out!

Where the water was!

We still drive out!

And she wants to come back in the spring — she asked me in the car —

so we'll drive out. We'll drive out.