FLORIDA
The mosquitoes
Go hunting to the tune of their ferocious obbligatos.
Mter dark, the fire-flies map the heavens in the marsh
Until the moon
rises.
Cold-white, not bright, the moonlight
is
coarse-meshed,
And the careless, corrupt state
is
all
black specks
Too far apart, and ugly whites; the poorest
Post-card of itself.
Mter dark, the pools seem to have slipped away.
The alligator, who has five distinct calls:
Friendliness, love, mating, war, and a warning,
Whimpers and speaks in the throat
Of the Indian Princess.
ELJZABETH BISHOP
41
