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Mangroves

The poem describes the difficult conditions of surviving in a mangrove swamp, including thick mud, swarms of insects like ants and fireflies, predatory reptiles like caimans and anacondas, and the ever-present danger of two-legged intruders carrying knives. The speaker uses their bamboo pole to navigate this hazardous environment but acknowledges it provides little protection against the many threats encountered in the dense, oppressive mangroves.

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47 views1 page

Mangroves

The poem describes the difficult conditions of surviving in a mangrove swamp, including thick mud, swarms of insects like ants and fireflies, predatory reptiles like caimans and anacondas, and the ever-present danger of two-legged intruders carrying knives. The speaker uses their bamboo pole to navigate this hazardous environment but acknowledges it provides little protection against the many threats encountered in the dense, oppressive mangroves.

Uploaded by

starfox222
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mangroves

By Paul Cameron Brown


How do you survive
in the mangrove swamps -
amid the twitchings of fetid water
& water lice thick as baby tears?
How with all the wallow of thick muck
making suction noises and the teams in relays
searching nightly with baited hounds do you pull free?
!our bamboo pole knows every ploy
but is a slender craft ill-e"uipped
to sparring blows from every "uarter
the undergrowth necessitates#
$he closeness of the clammy night
heaved about like so much rotting fruit will draw
the ants # # # devouring like that abundance of cold yellow eyes -
the firefly swarms that mock your heavy steel machete arm#
%cross the drift of darkness
and the insect life
you bat in swarms
the ultimate danger is not in the cayman giant
or his reptilian cousin named of copper wire
the %naconda& or even mindless holes thick black
oo'e that throttles a victim # # # but the two legged form coming
searching # # # a spectre on hind "uarters with a bolo knife stepping
free of that beaded circle the inner camp#

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