Irreplaceable Summer Conversations at the Lakeshore

Eerie place. Able wraiths.
The bodies on the beach
Have head lamps lit in each.

Even the pet dogs think
About their roles in things
And wag, and whine, and cringe.

You can’t exactly trade
Any one body for
Any other body,

While the bodies themselves
Are trading words, commands,
Gossip, and a few facts

As petty currency.
Hannah Arendt wrote truth
Is irreplaceable,

However easily
Bent, blurred, erased, destroyed.
We say everything is

Irreplaceable, but
Too bad, since everything
Goes. Domesticated

Bodies can play the same
Roles but not as the same
Souls, and souls can be swapped

Around like germs by those
Domesticated roles,
But that won’t mean words can

Be replaced exactly,
Once gone as able wraiths.
This beach. This eerie place.