There is much to learn from our wetlands. As they disappear, I want to bear witness and acknowledge the incredible work our wetlands do to support life on earth. There are many poems to be written.

Ice Age Trail: Merrimac Segment

The Wetlands

Ignored, disliked by some:
mosquitoes, nettles, gnats—
the wetlands’ work is undone
in bites if you get too close.

It’s stinky work they do
digesting overflow,
making dead ends into
new life in a slow flow.

Their stagnant pools reflect
the sky as mud pulls down
toxins to protect
our water, air and food.

Twice a year they host
migrations housed and fed.
These wastelands the most
productive places on earth.

Some fifty-million acres
now unprotected, lost
to Sackett*. Open to break,
rezone, repurpose, accost

nature to reform
for better use. Land left
for high and dry the norm,
floodwaters to flow in unrest—

erosion and displacement,
carbon pushed to the sky;
with food chains disrupted—
biodiversity dies.

Ignored, disliked by some:
mosquitoes, nettles, gnats—
the wetlands’ work—undone
in bites if you get too close.

from A Thousand Miles of Poetry (WWA Press, 2026)

*In SACKETT ET UX. v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ET AL.
No. 21-454 (2023) the Supreme Court changed the scope of the Clean Water Act
to apply only to wetlands that are “permanent bodies of water connected to
traditional interstate navigable waters” and have “a continuous surface
connection with that water.” This leaves an estimated previously protected
50,000,000 acres of wetlands open to potential development in the United States.
The Merrimac Preserve, which houses the wetland that inspired this poem, is
owned and operated by the Riverland Conservancy. The importance of places
like this that protect wetlands despite changing legislature are increasingly
important as stress on our environment continues.