swamp

after years of runoff from electroplating factories
from pigment and paint producers
from too many condos and retirement communities
the marshes themselves had become decrepit
heavy metals leached into the bellies
of snakes, storks, snappers and toads
and drowned them in the mire of man-made toxins
but the river of sawgrass now brown, low and barren
houses still a pertinacious crocodile
burdened with a cruel famishment
it knows only the broken swamp
it knows only its current emptiness
with nary a snap at breathing prey
having eaten naught but poisonous carrion
it lumbers on
through cattail reeds and floating hearts
with ancient reptilian patience
yet restless voracity within