Vermilion
“The lake was originally called Onamaniig which means ‘ochre’ because it was remembered by Anishinaabeg as a place that the people of the Red Ochre culture lived.”
—Margaret Noodin
The red eye
of a loon
for vision,
depths of water
who can say
what will pass
as, protection
reeds
edges of place
are only
temporary,
circling
filters the blues
and greens
as they have
always done
dives for minutes
crayfish, light re-
fracted, what could be
slowed
just enough
to catch a meal
or your eye,
indelible flash,
a crimson ribbon
ablaze, crossing
the lake
where you stand
watching
just then
with the grasses
from shore.
Copyright © 2021 by Molly McGlennen. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 3, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.