Quiet in the Wetlands by Evan Schwartz
- Aug 15
- 2 min read
The reeds swayed to the side,
Slow dancing in the breeze,
The land just beside,
The South Jersey sea.
The sun shined on the Wetlands,
On a sweltering summer day,
“Saltwater floods the sand,”
Was all she could say.
The cattails grew tall,
Soaked in the high tide,
That heron stayed since last fall,
He noted as he looked to the side.
It was late afternoon,
In the middle of August.
It had been hot,
Dry as a scrubland.
Dry,
Cracked,
And broken.
Then the rain came,
And flooded the Wetlands.
It fell and it fell and it fell,
In sheets and sheets and sheets,
Until the Wetlands were one with the sea.
The sky had opened up,
The storm drenching the shore,
Like him spitting out bitter coffee.
Or bitter mistakes.
The tide keeps rising,
She thought.
The tide keeps rising,
He realized.
The tide will never stop rising,
She started to fear.
The tide will keep rising,
He accepted their fate.
The pier where they stood,
Was on a peninsula.
It was on a peninsula.
The tide rose,
The road went underwater,
The hot, thick asphalt,
Cooled,
Humbled,
And flooded,
By Mother Nature.
They now stood on an island.
An island in the South Jersey Wetlands,
Scared and alone,
Yet calm and brave,
Kept company by two,
Two tortured souls,
As the wind whistled,
The rain soaked their faces,
And the sky remained grey.
Then the storm left,
Leaving in a hurry,
Like him when he saw her.
At the pier he couldn’t leave.
The tide keeps dropping,
He thought.
The tide keeps dropping,
She realized.
The tide will never stop dropping,
He started to hope.
The tide will keep dropping,
She now believed.
Water receded from the road,
They could leave.
Yet they stayed.
She breathed a sigh of relief,
He watched the waves,
Pulse up and down,
His heart beating slowly,
Her heart beating slowly,
To the rhyme of the sea,
To the rhyme of the sea they loved.
She took his hand.
He had not remembered,
The last time he had felt such zen,
Pure, uninterrupted, unconscious peace and joy.
And she was grateful,
For they could come back,
To her favorite salt marsh.
It was quiet in the Wetlands.
That was all they could say.