Amphibian Grit
My City destroyed a wetland last year
with no concerns for frogs living there.
It broke my heart to see it go,
for fifty years it was all I knew,
spring peepers, deer, and fox
coyote, minks, owls, hawks,
swallowtail, oaks, and sassafras,
pickerel weed and blue eyed grass,
algae, euglena, fairy shrimp,
maple trees and shelf fungus,
green heron, gasping carp,
black widows and argiopes.
All evicted, suffocated, or crushed
in the name of a fool’s “progress.”
A forested wetland sacrificed
to repay a campaign’s price.
All the trees chopped into logs,
piles of dirt to fill the bogs,
leaving behind a muddy mess
of uprooted wilderness.
I hated to see it end like this,
despite all we did to resist.
It was devastating to stand
and stare at the ruined land,
but as I did I heard the frogs
still singing out their songs
to the rains and setting sun
even with their habitat gone.
Their song might be the same as mine,
rebuild what’s abandoned next time.
If you are passionate about protecting wilderness, please check out the book I wrote about my efforts to help some local frogs. Much Thanks.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLKYJ81D?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520