Swamps

July 24

I am thankful for swamps. Swamps are beautiful but forboding places. They are teaming with foliage, water, and wildlife. Swamps are synonymous with Louisiana.

This is a photo of the marsh land at the Lake Martin Wildlife preserve near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana in February. The leaves had not yet come out but I liked the stark beauty of it all, the cypress trees, and the cypress knees.

a swamp tale

back in the swamp

where very few can go

there lives a man

name of zydeco joe

ole joe or zydeco

as he is sometimes called

has little hair

in fact he is quite bald

in these days when spanish moss

is so difficult to find

zydeco joe has no trouble at all

he is the moss finding kind

he makes his living

by selling spanish moss

he can find more

than anyone you come across

what his secret

everyone wants to know

i say the honest truth

happened a long time ago

see, it is said of zydeco

that he had a full head of hair

but now if you look at him

there is no sign of any there

so this is the story

if you stay and then lend me your ear

one day he removed all his hair

then planted it in cypress trees near

so now i tell you true

his hair grew into moss long and fine

and branched out to form more

so his supply is never in decline

but if you don’t believe

this story that i for you say

thirty years later just look at what was once black moss

you will see it has all turned gray.

© rt tulley