by Phillip Sterling

Here is the micro in its original formatting.

Phillip Sterling’s books include Lessons in Geography: The Education of a Michigan Poet (essays/memoir, Cornerstone, 2024), In Which Brief Stories Are Told (short fiction, Wayne State U Press), Amateur Husbandry (microfiction, Mayapple), and five collections of poetry, most recently Local Congregation: Poems Uncollected 1985-2015 (Main Street Rag 2023). His work has been anthologized in Best Short Fiction 2017 and Best Microfiction 2024.  

For accessibility screen readers

The lake is disheartened by the gossip of gulls, news brought in on the wind. Its water withdraws comfort from the sand, mimicking despair. Baffled  as much by the truth of the matter as by the gulls’ senseless enthusiasms, the lake leaves the shore isolate, driftwood bleaching in the sun on its own. We are welcome to it. Today, the lake’s composure is astonishing, given what we know about November, its pretentious weather. What we don’t know is harder to imagine: how far beyond the horizon a wooden boat burns.