Tracee Clapper
Bury my body in a southern, coastal swamp
I’m home in this black
water swamp where gnome-like cypress knees
huddle beneath shadows of their grandparents
in clumped duckweed that pretends
to be solid ground cradling silent gators
this canopied wood hosts
a wonderland of spring peepers
singing the sun down as the sky casts
dusky pink glitter over white egrets
in the middle of feather-fanning courtship
displays and territorial grunts
silhouettes of nestled cormorants
roosting for the evening adorn
island trees, like antique Christmas
ornaments, passed from father to son
on down to this daughter
whose eyes swell over
with visions of her great-grandchildren
standing on this very soil
breathing in the night air
fingers clasped together
in giggled toddler prayers
that this place will remain
not just as a poem
written by a long dead mother
but a place where the land still plays
below the stars, beside the sea.
Bury my body in a southern, coastal swamp
I’m home in this black
water swamp where gnome-like cypress knees
huddle beneath shadows of their grandparents
in clumped duckweed that pretends
to be solid ground cradling silent gators
this canopied wood hosts
a wonderland of spring peepers
singing the sun down as the sky casts
dusky pink glitter over white egrets
in the middle of feather-fanning courtship
displays and territorial grunts
silhouettes of nestled cormorants
roosting for the evening adorn
island trees, like antique Christmas
ornaments, passed from father to son
on down to this daughter
whose eyes swell over
with visions of her great-grandchildren
standing on this very soil
breathing in the night air
fingers clasped together
in giggled toddler prayers
that this place will remain
not just as a poem
written by a long dead mother
but a place where the land still plays
below the stars, beside the sea.
Tracee Clapper lives with her husband and their children, in Charleston, SC. She spends time in and draws inspiration from natural bird habitats. Some of her work has been published in The Blue Nib and Poppy Road Review. She writes to heal her soul and those of anyone else within whom her work resonates.