Death in a Poisoned World

Thin skinned and not quite a reptile
No scales and not quite a fish
Singing your serenade nightly
Lovers seeking a tryst

Only a memory now
Of childhood places from the past
When the moon was full and we were young
And the magic, over all was cast

Sensual serenades from bug-eating throats
Choruses up from the pond
Now stilled forever by an unseen hand
And our children cannot comprehend

When we reminisce and speak of the beauty
Under the stars; with a young girl at our side
Listening to life from the mud of a swamp
Primordial urges stirring inside

The pond and the swamp are now quiet and still
Mosquitoes and gnats fill the air
The water is tainted, if water it be called
And nobody seems to care

That fragile song is now dead or dying
Inconsequential and wrapped in a poisonous cloak
Weep all the World, when his voice is stilled forever
And the frog no more doth croak