Content Advisory: Adirondack Chateaugay Lake paranormal wilderness bio‑hazard themes—depicts toxic lake mists, mutagenic algae blooms, and Wendigo spore infestations. Recommended for mature audiences; reader discretion strongly advised.
sing ye tall pines that lean over chateaugay like tired sentries sing of minta thale reed-crowned wanderer and of sly tallow jack whose nostrils grew thickets stout enough to snare the north wind itself sing how one steamy tuesday in malone cracked the world like a sap-bloated log and spilled night where daylight ought to be
shop-door prologue
i rattled down the tannery alley kerosene funk thick in my lungs shoes slapping puddles of hair-dye runoff found the crooked sign jack navigational oddments & other certainties latch squealed a note flat and sharp like rusted brass in a limbo band in i stepped walls leaned ceiling yawned compass needles skittered on velvet trays silver earwigs darting every direction but north tarnation says i voice rough like chain on wet hawser place smells like a beeg skillet o lightning
tallow jack slid from behind cracked sextants nose-forest waving slow as nippergrass grin wide as thaw ice splitting nose hairs thick and tangled like briars stubborn as the miles family cows and the brother who’d bellow like one tallow jack’s greasy hands smelled like the swill trough where squire miles’ boar pig pissed up a storm back in ’82 turning mud to slick that stuck to boots for weeks felt like walking through that mess he stood slicker than that mud when i met him buy naught girl yet you’ll pay he muttered light bent crooked round him my own outline shrank thin fluttery when i backed out to sun glare it felt like he’d pick-pocketed the shadow clean off my heels
stagecoach road
pratt hill cracked the reins coach jounced north cedar dust rose like battle smoke and i rode tat-tat-tat to the wheel beat eleven eleven eleven each spoke a reminder of the clockless hush id sworn not to name squire miles bridge flashed past stones slick since the boar pig puddled em in eighty-two folks laugh yet but the joke turned ash when i glanced beside me nothing but air and faint charcoal smudge where my profile oughta lean
devils curtain invocation
twilight upper lake spread pewter uncanny across the narrows hung the devils curtain weed-woven fog wall locals say was stitched by drowned loggers who never punched out it breathed slow inhale exhale each breath tolling inside me ribs like iron bell strokes caught in mason jar pratt spat chaw aint steer’n through that weed-rag no sir says he eyes wide as skillet bottoms by golly we wont i echoed though the lake in me pulled forward like salmon aching headwater
séance on banner house veranda
mrs thurbers jars of pickled nipper brine green as lantern glass lined the table pratt slapped his stack of unsold tally ho tickets down for luck the clock shivered froze 1111 something tugged tide on marrow my voice slid deep brook-cold steamboat landing beyond devils curtain waits the sky-rope keepers summon lamps guttered when they flared my chair sat lonely and outside oarlocks clacked where no skiff should drift
skiff song through wrong water
i rowed oars creaked crooked rhythm lake stretched into corridors lane of sunk millstones ghost money for ferryman flotilla of tally ho tickets sailing flat as lily pads each inked with my name bleeding into pulp a boot bobbed up toe gnawed ragged laces cinched round compass stamped property of tallow jack chill crawled spine to scalp
blind pilot shadow trade
fog swallowed daylight paddlewheel thump slow ceremonial phantom steamer loomed deck slimed with milfoil seaweed algae bloom pearls pilot stood stovepipe tall empty eye pits sprouting spiral reeds he beckoned the lake clamped my gadway skiff still as pewter my shadow thin remnant unpeeled fluttered onto his deck like shot goose down the pilot turned the wheel water rippled clock ticks shadow thinned cigarette ash
steamboat landing market detached selves
landing rose planks petrified gray blue lanterns guttering from posts dangled ragged silhouettes fluttering like blackfish hung to cure tallow jack waited nose-thicket dripping lakewater arms cradling bundled shades trades fair he rasped bring me three new souls fore crescents spent and yours shuffles home by gar i shant i spat backwoods grit sharpening each syllable tallow jacks grin cracked wider than devils hole chasm blue flames surged white the hung shadows slithered down crawling tar slick toward my boots
flight rising doom
i bolted oars hammering skiff knifing fog behind something antlered unfolded ribs paddle spokes spine rotten keel snoot driftwood squire’s boar bent compass needles clinking along vertebrae lakeborn colossus chanting silent verdicts water froze beneath its tread moon hiccupped beats blurred breath stroke curse prayer one rush
merrill beach dawn
beach watchers swore moon winked sky jolted fog wall shredded like old account books stove only evidence single boot washing ashore lace looped cracked sextant and my skiff coasting empty a calendar page plastered to the thwart may 2 1881 shadow silhouette nailed thereon mouth agape silent scream widening with sunrise folks now bar windows when devils curtain breathes after dark for if your profile looks thinner come morning youll know tallow jacks malone market stays open trading shadows for time and chateaugay lake keeps minutes dern slimy milfoil seaweed tendrils sky-rope lengths no mortal tape can measure
What mysteries of Chateaugay Lake haunt you?