The Water Is Too Cold In February

My family always tried skating on Lake Michigan every winter. I’d been hoping for a chance this year but it just didn’t get cold enough. Sitting beside the lake yesterday watching the geese come and go, the ducks try to make their way around feathered territory, I imagined being on the lake with Tom. As children we loved it, and we’d come home from such outings and talk to each other about them on the computer. “I wish you were here,” we’d say. I want to go skating with you now that we’re finally together. For new memories and old memories to collide. Red and runny noses, double layered mittens, and blades scraping against the ice. We etched our names into the lake.