for the rivers, draining toward the coast, carry such silt

and the red mangrove, entwining root with excrescent root

prospers its mighty nation—bubbleshell, jingleshell, rotting chips

the flecks of understory leaves, crud and algae, scum—

like a submerged derrick, its network of cables impenetrable

and profuse, the trees knot and twist, trap the water’s swill

a ratsnake in the branches, girding the lowest bough

and the strangler fig constricting trunk to trunk, arterial mass

wrapped over, in the insidious embrace of virginia creeper

what has been garnered of this wetland except the twigs

organic and inorganic mud, quartz-rich and mercury-laden

the accumulation of contaminants, cadmium, diquat, toxaphene

and always, the sandbars eroding at the periphery

where freshwater meets saltwater, and sawgrass swamp

drains into estuaries and bay.    and always the balance

upset, as herbicides eradicate cat’s claw vine

which has choked out carrotwood, which has displaced cypress

and the sea absorbs the toxins and eliminated matter

what does it matter now, what is self, what is self, what is I, who gets to speak

or who does not speak, whether the poems get written

whether the reader receives them whole, in part or not at all

child to come, what will you make of this scratched paradise

this receptacle of soil, water, seed, bee floating scat and spore

brutal wind and brutal tide.    the insignificance of fortunes