The Boy in the Lake
by Sean Kilpatrick (December 2025)
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We vacationed on a small lake
where some boy had drowned.
The shore was abrupt, shallow,
but with a steep escarpment
too deep for sonar.
=
I stood at the precipice,
sensing a thermoclinal drop,
and stared into his colorless eyes.
Shut up, I said. It’s not cold enough
to be inviting.
=
He rose in the water each day.
By the end of our visit,
his head was cresting the waves.
By the end of my life,
his shadow crossed the moon.
=
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Table of Contents
Sean Kilpatrick has been published or is forthcoming in Boston Review, Fence, Nerve, Bomb, Vice, Obsidian, evergreen review, Columbia Poetry Review and The Malahat Review. He has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Eastern Michigan University.
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