Florida, by Tom Maddox

Water vapor rises off the sea.  Drawn over the warm mass of land,
it  forms high  towers of  cloud, white  and gray  and black  and
orange. Lightning strokes climb the  cloud towers; rains pour Old
channels  dug by  man disappear  under the  rising stream  as the
river flows  south, swollen with  its new water.  Lake Okeechobee
takes in the river, then  swarms over its boundaries, where dikes
once restrained its  flood Silver sheets sweep across  the sea of
grass.  Herons flap  their wings  and  poke with  sharp bills  at
silvery shapes just under the  water’s surface; the birds raise.
their  heads and  swallow  down  the fish  with  a brisk  shiver.
Alligators  slide from  mud banks  with quick  carnivorous intent
Here fields once  were tilled, planted, and  soaked with chemical
fertilizer that  ran into  the rivers and  canals along  with the
pesticides and  detergent scum.  No more.  Sawgrass and  weed and
dock and all  steaming uncut profusion stir in the  water and the
heat. Life teems in the flood,  none of it human At the ocean’s.
edge, gulls  scream overhead.  A turtle moves  slowly, unmolested
across  hot sand.  All along  the silent  coastal canals,  egrets
stand like placid  sentinels against an enemy they  know will not
return                                                           

This  work   is  licensed   under  a  Creative   Commons  License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/