Scared
Sunshine sparkles off
cold, crystal clear waters
deep below in the murky depths of
my soul. Where the sun does not shine.
Sparkles skip and flash
on clear water surface,
in the performance of the
Ballet of Sunshine,
shiny and bright
those tiny balls of
dancing sunlight.
Look back in the pages of history
when life awed natural wonders.
Back when Silver Springs
embellished nature.
Come with me to a lost place
and look through the wild eyes of a
little, forgotten Florida boy
Let's revisit an unspoiled natural marvel.
A jewel destroyed for a greener turf.
Alas back to the annuals of history
when we had the opportunity to see
a grand artesian spring formation
gusting clean rainwater
into a river full of wild life.
We can always revisit this marvel
in the land somewhere between
awake and asleep, Watch the otters play,
with innate delight,
piggyback with large sea turtles
as they glide in a tremble of lucent crystal,
swimming stylishly over waving eelgrass.
The Blue Sky unique,
painted by God in transparent water colour,
lights upon undulating ripples of water,
pure as a magical illusion,
a simple stained glass window
over-looking an all natural aquatic world.
A blanket of choppy,
liquid silk, so fragile
that it melts when touched.
Riverbanks lined with towering bald cypress trees,
some more than five years old. Cypress elbows,
hard as flint,
line the banks like jaded brown teeth.
Florida’s largest alligators slide by in content.
Shellfish, Fish and shrimp, in water up to 80 feet deep,
cary out the natural quest amidst the backdrop of
tiny fossilized shells
from 70 million years ago.
The water is so clear that
the fish look
as if they swam in air.
Endangered bears and panthers
roam a botanical garden nestled in a vast woodland,
a forest wider than my wildest imagination.
Tarzan‘s monkeys run free here.
They chatter as the birds sing.
Blue heron, osprey, and other wildlife
bask and feed in this natural habitat.
There! A bald eagle soars high above.
We open our eyes and it is all gone,
a whole 350 acre nature theme park.
The water still sparkles at Florida‘s
largest invisible fertilizer dump.
The bears had to make room for new homes.
A glass-bottom boat trip at Silver Springs
40 years ago was like an airship ride over
a brilliant emerald forest of eelgrass.
Today it's like voyaging over a dark
field of eddying brown apple sauce.
© Rooster Roo
