like that fall / that pandemic fall / a cabin by a lake / not Crystal Lake / but a lake all the same / for a week / an escape / after nearly a year of isolation / in the city / death trailers / so many bodies / pots and pans out windows / small apartment / barely leaving your neighborhood / a lake vacation / fresh air / no masks / your husband / two friends / so quiet / barely another soul / or were they there? / watching? / waiting? / you kayaked / alone / out across the stillness / leaves just beginning to change / not blood red yet / more yellow / your arms rising with each paddle stroke / leery of hands emerging from beneath / or accidently unhooking a body in the murky lake bottom / a rescue plan / in your head / how to save all those boys / dark-haired / your weakness / the ones who always die / knife in chest / face / crotch / dark-haired like your husband / there in the cabin / that tiny bed / that hurt your back / by end of week / you were sleeping separate / all four of you / you up in a loft / above / a place of survival / a place of preparing / a place to be final / best chance of warding off locals / gone mad with Trump signs / and torches / the only bar in town / a monument to bigotry / a fear in a chest / otherness on full display / listening for that crack of a stick / a creak of a porch / a shatter of glass / surveying for secret weapons / anything of use / ready / you were ready to save all the boys / make them final

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