The Clotilda (A Day in the Swamp)

When the darkness of my night    
provides no shelter from my storms,    
I'll use my sunshine to spend a day in the swamp,    
to wash my blues away clear to the ocean.    
I'll make ripples in the water    
on a borrowed boat    
running the banks and    
exploring the feeder creeks,    
while turtles dive from their logs and    
alligators smile as they slide into the murky water.    
But you'll never see the Clotilda,    
not even at low tide    
   
I'll watch tiny orchids bloom,    
talk to the cypress trees,    
listen to the birds singing,    
while dragonflies are swooping.    
Snakes are all hiding in plain sight,    
while flora and fauna are slowly fading away.    
Ox bow lakes are forming,    
the steam donkey is rusting,    
the river barge is barren.    
Beautiful Suzanne is on the bank    
and Ben Raines is unafraid swimming with the gators    
where you'll never see the Clotilda,    
not even at low tide    
   
The blue herons guard the river's edge,    
positioned at strategic points every now and again.    
The young pelicans having lost their way    
stick around in tree tops near where the    
Indian mound is ruled by a scarlet king.    
Luckily, the glaciers never made it this far    
we are told, so Alabama is blessed with water.    
The Appalachians give up their crystal streams.    
The unimpeded Cahaba twists and turns for miles.    
The Coosa and the Tallapoosa form the Alabama.    
The Tombigbee and the Alabama    
join together to make the Mobile    
which flows to the ocean waves.    
And the salt wedge extends back up into the    
Mobile-Tensaw delta,    
but you'll never see the Clotilda,    
not even at low tide    
   
The wild hogs are in the shade somewhere rooting, a woodpecker in the distance is drumming,    
and we've taken some time to slow down,    
to see the last cane break grow,    
watch a coon on a log figit and play,    
 to hear the beaver slap it's tail,    
to notice the cardinal flower and    
the sweet gum changing color in America''s Amazon.    
The sun is kissing our skin.    
She said, "I love being on the water."    
I love spending a day in the swamp with her.    
The sunshine chasing our blues away    
and we both count it as good ,    
even if we never saw the Clotilda sleeping    
in the riverbed.