with but a crystal parapet / between

We were walking back from the library, and he said, "The lake looks frozen."

It did, the thinnest sheen of ice over the black water. "That'll hold our weight," I said. I picked up a stone from the path, went down to the waterside and flung it out, heard it skitter over the ice's surface. "See? I said. "Safe."

"You've woken a goose." Something far out on the lake was making honking noises.

"They deserve to get woken up by me for a change."

(Title from "The Midnight Skaters", by Edmund Blunden, which is otherwise a little dark for today's mood. But lovely.)