Florida Wetlands: A Quartet of Poems
Gum Drop Swamp
Florida Quartet
Gum Drop Swamp
You stand and stare
at these tall gum drop-
cypress trees reflected
in a pond and in the
mind and in the memory
as though time has fused
inside and out until
a white heron splashes
down sending ripples
right up to these trees
under a brilliant blue sky.
Restless Birds
While swamp cypress bend,
mockingbirds chase a marsh hawk
out of a drooping pine tree draped
with grey-green Spanish moss
until an owl lands on its sagging top
to frighten mockingbirds away
as palm trees begin to sway
in advancing winds of a hurricane.
Madeira Beach
While we await our lunch
in a tiki hut at Madeira Beach,
forceful gusts of wind drive rain
into the restaurant to create
pools of water at our feet.
When our shrimp finally arrive,
perhaps their ghosts are satisfied
with new oceans splashing in.
Swamp Blossom Amulet
As you look, they bloom,
they bloom a delicate white,
white in sun on lily pads--
lily pads spread across a pond,
a pond with a palm tree growing,
growing straight out of the middle,
the middle of this dark pond,
a very dark pond white with blooms,
and as you look, they bloom.
© 2016 Richard Francis Fleck