Poem: Everglades

Everglades Sunset, Phot0 by M. David Orr

I see a shadow drifting
Out across the Everglades,
Darkening the wilder places.
A cloud moves overhead,
The sun behind,
And I stand gazing
From a small hill at the space,
Broken by tall grass, cedar tree, and vine,
Alligator hole, and long canal.
I see no waste,
For every rotted trunk
Gives place for fungal life
And teeming insect hoards.
The subtle water drifts among the grass
Moving slowly in its path
Toward the Gulf of Florida,
And we men bring our noise
Among the quiet flowing,
Silent growing,
Hidden death and life.

We, like the water,
Each have our own flow,
Our sometimes seen and sometimes hidden paths
Toward that great Gulf
That marks our end
And our unseen beginning.
We have our little deaths and lives.
We grow and rot and grow.
The Sun gives life,
The Water drives our flow,
And it is not ours to know,
Moving among the grass and trees,
What we are completely,
What we are to be,
Out where meet
The water, sky, and sea.

Copyright 2006 by M. David Orr