trinity parkway

they've cleared the wetlands

for housing development

my brother-in-law wonders

where did all these rats come from?

i bet the rats wonder 

the same 

i used to smoke cigarettes there

by the levee with my friends 

kissed a boy, standing there in 

the darkness 

the boy and his friend

lit the hillside on fire one july fourth

i used to visit the egrets on my own

and climb into the large scrap metal yard

someone left in the open field

but now the houses, uniform

block out the view of the wetlands

the tiny fish that somehow end up 

in ponds are dead.

my sister's yard is a plot of concrete.

her children speak to the birds,

the rats, the raccoons, the opossums,

the cats, the high flying geese,

the spiders, as their father sets

traps. i tell the kids, i used to play 

in the wetlands. and there were rats. 

 I got muddy. the sun set

into the tall grasses and reeds

like an egg yolk, and left the skies

purpled and golden, and the geese

would fly overhead, and i knew it

was time to head home.