IT'S TRUE, HE WAS A BOY WITH A GO-CART WHO DROVE BY
Heidi Lynn Staples

 

 

it’s true, he was a boy with a go-cart who drove by

faster than elevated coastal ridges and            

             dry, sandy soil conditions.  i blushed              

 

             pinelands and pine

scrub. the words between us like nonnative fish  

 

less successful in invading.

             like manatees at a significant

risk from pollution and other disturbances  

 

the touch between us like surfaces            

             of some lakes and ponds concealed            

             by rafts of floating lily            

 

water lettuce, duckweed

he carved our initials into a cypress tree.  

 

the days were conifers that lose their foliage

in sawgrass marshes, where they may form  

 

characteristic domes, in a time when time was                                         

a mucky terrain, in swamps along river floodplains.  

 

vast underground waterways have formed beneath  

 

much of the state.  they are also home.

 

 

 

~~~~~

Heidi Lynn Staples' third book, I, Jellyfish is forthcoming from Ahsahta Press. Currently, she lives in Athens, Georgia, completing a PhD in English literature with a focus on poetry and environmental awareness.