Rising Marshes

Choking on the excessive vapours
Of our abandoned debauchery
Your stunted shoots flail awkwardly
In artificial chambers of soil and sedge.
Your weathered hands
Fly too close to the sun,
Goaded by an elevated fixation
That cannot support the
Consequence of its ambition.
Meanwhile, beneath a moistened
Carpet of shrunken bodies
Dense conclaves begin to coalesce;
Conspiring in ancient, homey tones,
Gnarled tendrils begin to excavate
This hidden landscape,
Replicating their architecture with
Flawless precision.
Huddled together like
Sailors in a sinking ship,
Your writhing roots
Build unbreakable bonds.
A dense network of bailing limbs that
Claw desperately for breath;
Earthy embankments rising
Like dirty beacons against the
Nearing, ever-rising tides.
Schoenoplectus americanus at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex, California, USA (Image Credit: Gordon Leppig