EVERGLADES #5: May
(sawgrass and oil on road-kill alligator hide)
~Ray Hudson, 2017
The birds have gone.
No golden-slippered egret,
no blue-eyed cormorant,
no wading stork shielding
dark water with her wings.
Silence is absolute.
Mangroves
are weary, dusty.
In the fetid pools,
mosquitoes awaken.
Already the air
is thick with heat.
Alligator spoor—
dinosaur track,
tail-drag—
marks the muddy flats
like the handwriting
of the blind.