I used to tell people that my daughter had grown up with a Tom Sawyer vibe. We ended the school year with a pond party where all her friends and many parents came. We all swam, ate and celebrated the beginning of summer. Initially, some of the kids were not sure they wanted to swim in the pond. But by the end of the night they had experienced what to me feels like the chemical change that happens when you swim in local water.
Today while she celebrated with childhood friends I walked around our hillside with our seven month old grandson introducing him to leaves, trees, flowers, and the pond. As we studied the milkweed my monologue reminded him that the monarch butterflies and their essential milkweed are now his responsibility.
Water USA
america, tom sawyer, is bigger
than your swim
hole. You meant, the union, water-
falls, one waterfall
a path near, from which you
jump, folklore, holding
your nose. a chemical change
takes place as you pollute
the water i drink. as your
jet lands, crashing my
environment. tom sawyer can’t hold
all the dead bodies upright
nor get anything
out of a lecture on control
systems. and bigger
thomas didn’t have an even
chance to study chemistry
–Clarence Major