"a bi-monthly journal of environmental news and commentary..."

Nisqually Estuary Reborn

In new estuary grand
Pacific Crabapple is now dead,
drowned in new shallow, brackish waters,
its naked network--trunk and branches--
brittle and gray.

Before the dikes came down,
along the freshwater bank,
this tree gloried and shared,
in summer,
dense, deep green leaves, shade,
safe places, and in the fall,
multitude clusters of tiny, tart,
purple apples.

No denying these gifts--
yet, things are changing...

Renewed estuary (here
for ages before man's
mounded dirt) supports its own
wonders--a special place
for precious young salmon,
blue heron, ducks--dabbling and diving,
wandering geese,
and swallows, cruising low, tilting, turning
over the waters--sparkle and shine--
in the sun and the mud flats--
new plants and smallish creatures
adapting to this ebbing and flowing
diluted salt

Estuary was here before
and is back again--
an amazing!

And to have seen these transformations,
lived it! What a thing!
Crabapple did, yes--

and all around
things are changing...

Jack Rice

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