Brendan Walsh    Hollywood     (Gregg Shapiro)
cedar key

roseate spoonbills hotpink in the live oak 
across the saltpond fly out with the tides
so pronounced such flamboyant high-low
swings the fish jump constantly towards sun
the noseeums eat-us-up tonight as we dismantle 
clams our fingers oiled and garlicked 
everything must feed 

the dolphins in the bay who barely
touch our kayak with their cartoonish snouts
hunt fish differently than other dolphins 
they’ve constructed distinct divisions of labor 
to secure meals for every mouth
this is their culture this is who they are 
we forget that culture is a human word 

for universal animal behavior like how the spoonbills
on cedar key prefer some small marsh minnows 
unavailable further west or south 
or how i’ve cooked this steak for us and you knew
the farmer maybe even knew the cow we name
every bite of food we name birds and forget kinds of fish 
except the few we like to eat 

imagine shellmound just east of here without
thousands of years of discarded shells 
left by the killed-off indigenous people 
their civilization defined by clam and oyster 
and we know nothing of what they called themselves
or who they loved and now white people come
to study their trash and theorize about extinction

what will we leave behind in this place
not bottles or plastic bags not these scraps 
which are trucked off-island to a regional landfill 
how quiet it will be once we’re gone oh thank god
this noiseless world these miles of tidal swamp
fishjump and birdhonk an unnamed song 
the gulf growing rich with emptiness 

Originally published  in Sidereal Magazine