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Four Poems of the Southeast
Corkscrew Swamp
Three Poems of the Southeast (Poems)
Southern Appalachian Spring
Maiden's hair fern leaves
drip onto moist ground,
where fiddlehead clusters push
through dead brown leaves,
and spongy moss oozes on stones
thick with pale-green lichen far
above a very cloudy valley
with wisps of mist slithering
upslope to join rain clouds
that hover over rocky summits
looming above warm and humid
forests alive with chirping frogs.
Swamp Sanctuary
All is movement here,
slow and gentle
whether strands of moss
in a swamp breeze or
fronds of fern dancing
with a cobweb or
the flow of clearwater
toward the sea,
and then a heron lands
spreading his delicate toes
with a poetry of steps==
each step forward cautiously
and gingerly as possible.
Slowly he spreads his toes,
withdraws one step for firmer
footing and then lurches
forward to catch some
squirming insect in his bill
before flying skyward
silhouetted with strands of
bald cypress muffling the distant
notes of a springtime warbler.
Banyan Sun
Giant white oaks and
dangling Spanish moss
droop with wild pineapples
and bright pink orchids
and spralling vines of
strangler figs.
Twisting snake-like
roots thicken into smooth
trunks of banyan trees.
Royal palms rustle in a
balmy wind from a warm
sea of glistening lime,
and gumbo limbo's smooth
and curving trunk points its
branches high in a purple sky.
Dark sap oozes from poison wood,
while a black alligator with yellow
eyes basks in humid heat.
Roseate spoonbills glide over
a misty marshy lake flapping their
wings in a tropical setting sun,
as glades of swaying sawgrass
redden in a timeless silence.
While many people associate the banyan tree with Asia, particularly India, it is plentiful in south Florida as well.
Flickering Swamp Lights
There's a certain amount
of comfort in seeing those
house lights flicker
a few miles across the
swamp knowing they're
not alligator eyes reflecting
a shimmering moon.
Who knows how many
water moccasins there
are in spongey wetlands
in-between or how many
quick pygmy rattlesnakes
crawl on those few hummocks
of southern pines and live oaks,
but there's a certain amount
of comfort seeing those house
lights as, hopefully, ours are
a bit of comfort to them out there
until the gradual coming of dawn.