MANGROVE POEM

I saw its periscope in the tide;
its torpedo-seed seeking the soft side
of the island, the grey mud-bank.
And, where it touched, it seemed the land sank
with its tree exploding from water; the green
mangroves' fountainhead of leaves bursting, seen
like a mushroom-top of detritus and spray.
Today, in my boat, at the close end of the bay,
I saw its dark devastations; islet and spit
sunk in the flat high tide. Where these war-seeds it,
gaps of horizon and sea; then trees….gaps….trees
…..like men on a flushed foredeck. No ease:
the drab olive-green swarming everywhere;
troops of mangroves, uniform everywhere.

Mangroves by John Blight