20161202 (ducks & bucks)

With some lighthearted nonchalance Evergreen's mascot is the geoduck (GOO-ee-DUCK)

Like eerie bluish-white fireflies

In the dark over the shallow waters

Of low tide at midnight the bright 

Lamps of the geoducks tenders shone

As they searched for delicacies 

Delightful to East Asian palates, 

Culling those ready for the table. 

Despite the dark I could make 

Out the surface of the Sound and 

Just as easily the stony beach 

Revealed by the tides receding.

The gray clouds overhead didn’t

Impose the “hard dark” of similar

Nights I’ve known in the woods

Of Tennessee and I can’t say why.

Perhaps the moon, pulling the sea

From the land, was still positioned

To illuminate the area enough

For night vision. Geoducks are

Not fish or plants, but clams who 

Bury themselves in the sand and

Produce an upward growing tube

Of flesh, most likened to a phallus,

Which is the reason discussion

Of them is accompanied by titters

(Another problematic reference)

And sly looks among the knowing.

Beachfront owners find the matter

At once annoying and profitable

As they can sign contracts with the

Harvesters (?), cultivators (?) for

A share of the returns earned in

Their piece of the tidelands. The

Annoyance is having to tolerate

The occasional anchoring of 

Their small working barges

Offshore when the time is not 

Ripe and the tide insufficient

For harvest. My BPH affliction

(Benign prostatic hypertrophy)

Has me often walking to the

Bathroom while their work is 

Done, which is quiet and brief.

In the summer I might watch

And listen to a whole session—

Maybe even say hello. Last night 

Was cold and working in the 

Water must have been unpleasant. 

Just how profitable I don’t know.

But it’s interesting that unlike

The lords of the feudal ages whose

Sheep-grazing lands extended to

The fences at the roads, for these

Northwestern nobles the areas

Behind their homes which extend

A quarter-mile to the road are kept

Forested, undeveloped, virtual

Wilderness, simply because they

Don’t need to make it productive.

They're enough as a screen for

Privacy and of some natural

Beauty besides. Log it and haul 

It away? Heavens to Murgatroyd,

No, not in a million! Although

Quite conceivably one day some

Enterprising woods-person 

Could pitch the owners about

Making their fallow forests

Profitable like their clammy seas.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016