Fata Morgana: Poems

The Navigators

The Navigators For Robert Philen 1. Thompson Bayou weathered nature walk sign warns “you may encounter poisonous snakes and alligators” the largest assemblage of venoms on the continent, cottonmouth moccasins, copperheads, and coral snakes, at least three kinds of rattlesnakes (eastern diamondback, timber, pygmy) no sign of the poison-bearing alligators  Spanish moss dangles from myrtle oak branches, smooth waxy leaves I took for magnolia but smaller, until I saw the acorns, green, sweet, fast-maturing, so many have fallen to the wayside: we crush dozens underfoot not moss at all, an epiphyte doing no harm to the tree  saw palmetto sprouting in the crook of a water oak twenty feet up or more, green-fronded water spout  88 Shepherd PG:Layout 1 12/20/06 5:27 PM Page 88 oaks divided into red oaks and white: live oaks are members of the white oak group, usually though not always with unlobed leaves, evergreen and durable wood southern live oaks rarely found north of the Georgia Coastal Plain  black fish with translucent blue tails and fins bream or other cichlids can’t see them when the sun is on their water catfish, larger, gray-bodied, churning the bottom muds  oneself as snapping turtle, half -submerged, drifting slowly neck extended, taking in any scrap of potential sustenance afloat on or just beneath the surface it’s turtles all the way down 2. Big Lagoon the mockingbirds can’t make up their minds what song they want to sing, go through them all in hectic sequence  men wade out into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway 89 Shepherd PG:Layout 1 12/20/06 5:27 PM Page 89 with small mesh nets for mullet and bait fish, fishing poles to catch mackerel, sheepshead, white trout, flounder just leave the damned fish alone  “Long Pond is not a naturally formed waterbody but a man-made borrow pit; the pond is fed by groundwater seepage and by rainfall.” the dirt dug out to build some other place  southern live oaks reduced to gnarled shrubs (they stay saplings for years, scrub oak with tiny green acorns), sand pines stunted by the wind, the salt wind brings in, and salt water leaching into white sandy soils composed of quartz, the barren coast coated in nutrient-poor glitter  oaks more likely to lose their limbs in high winds, pines just shed straw and splayed-open cones  cotton balls of deer moss, pastel green pillows of reindeer moss (actually a lichen)  90 Shepherd PG:Layout 1 12/20/06 5:27 PM Page 90 mourning doves in late afternoon, evening doves in their small tuxedos take their places in the desiccated branching (heavy, strong, once used for shipbuilding) red-headed woodpeckers test blond deadwood a great blue heron guards a shredded pine  late wind still incomplete, full of gaps and empty spaces 91 Shepherd PG:Layout 1 12/20/06 5:27 PM Page 91 ...