Snapshot: The lake at dusk

[pegkerr]

Last night I was driving Delia to her Girl Scout meeting, and we drove past Lake Hiawatha shortly after sunset. I glanced over at the lake and exclaimed, "Oh, look, girls." The ice is starting to form on the lake, hard enough to cover the water, but still thin enough to reflect the sky. Directly overhead the color was fading blue-to-black, but the horizon was still bright apricot from the sun's fiery death. The ice reflected the same apricot light around the edge of the lake, but in the darkened center, huddled together, rested a flock of birds, blackened against the twilit-reflecting ice, like scraps of night cut out of the sky. We went by too quickly for me to be sure: were they geese (is it too late for geese?), or crows? I couldn't tell. But the image stayed with me, long after I dropped Delia at her meeting, and so I share it now with you.