Karl's most recent poem was written September 7, 2001.  - poetheart 09/08/01

I am a brackish creature
At home in fresh and salt
Where quiet rivers widen into sunlit bays
Protected by barrier aisles and sand bars

Hiding in the marsh grass
I feed on carrion and fleas
Where fresh water trickles steadily, predictably
A safe haven for the likes of me

Flushed away on spring's swollen flow
I'm cast out in the bay
Where sustenance is scarce
And venture through a channel to the open sea

To rediscover what it's really like
In the swells and currents
Where truly wild creatures romp
A place both dangerous and strange

But that strangeness beckons me
To search for larger prey or be caught myself
Driven by my hunger, I wait
For that which will assuage

Should nothing come my way
In frustration I return
Or flee in fear from imagined fate or real
To my brackish home

In time I find the marshy bed
Where I am neither predator nor prey
And only I know where I've been
And wait for spring to come again

by Karl Seidman

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