Inland Sea

Lake Michigan is vast, an inland sea,

A Fresh water oasis as far as one can see.

To her beach parks heated Chicagoans flee,

From sweltry homes on the tracks of the Cree,

The beach fills with absent conferees.

Mishigami, Great Water, as the Ojibwa said.

She was born as the great age of ice fled.

Along her shores indigenous tribes spread,

Her game and fish was their daily bread.

The Havana Hopwell natives first resided in place,

Carving a life out of this natural space.

By the waters of the lady great they left their trace.

Lake trout, yellow perch, largemouth bass substance embraced.

Yet, long before recorded time

Paleo-Indians held the long shore line.

Only they know who they were

but they fell a mammoth not far from here.

In Kenosha’s museum  the proof is shown

With it the modern imagination roams.

A camp, a tribe, flourished in a forgotten harvest home,

Before Columbus and the European discovered the brome.

Imagine, if you will, small bark roofed huts,

Trails cut through knee high grass to thick glens where wild Elk rut.

Visualize the night filled with the cook fire’s sent,

Roasting mammoth to the coyote’s lament.

Conceive an open shore, home to Mallard, red fox, and raccoon,

Before Marquette and Joliet or even the Illiniwek commune.

Long ago home to some, a place to roam under the sun.

A purpose filled life, even before the bow and gun.

Now her shore amasses many a town,

From Chicago go north and communities abound.

She’s home to wind surfing, jet ski, kayak, and canoe,

Yachting, shipping, goods affordable for the few.

Lake Michigan is vast, an inland sea,

A Fresh water oasis as far as one can see.

To her beach parks heated Chicagoans flee,

From sweltry homes on the tracks of the Cree,

The beach fills with absent conferees.