Within the swamp are brackish pools
where gators wait for food and fools
from towns and cities far away.
Sometimes they stumble in to stay
and ripen where the gator drools
but that’s not taught in any schools.
With knowledge and the proper tools
some folks can work or live and play
within the swamp.
My friend gets rich. He and his mules
go out to where bald cypress rules
and finds old sunken logs which pay
their weight in gold. Without decay
these fallen giants are nature’s jewels
within the swamp.
Here it is Daniel, comment or crit at your leisure!
Larry
Another perfect https://forums.mosaicmusings.net/index.php?showtopic=280&st=0&start=0, Larry...
and providing an inside look to a place where you are familiar and most are not.
The first stanza provides a quirking and dark look at the milieu of gators, including unsuspecting 'foreigners' who may become food for the drooling creatures with big mouths and lots of sharp teeth.
The second stanza ties up the first and provides a transition into the final stanza's explanation of one of the more lucrative 'businesses' in the swamp. Love it!
The second to the last line provides a nice variation to the perfect Iambic Tetrameter which you use consistently throughout the piece. Here, of course, you force the reader to squish "giant" into one syllable, which if perfectly acceptable in my book.
deLighting in your sharing.
Please have a look around to provide your careful and generous eye to their pieces.
expectantly, Daniel
Hi Ali,
Thanks for popping in for a read. Let me explain the part of my poem with which caused you confusion. Cypress doesn't rot! Cypress logs can stay underwater for decades without deteriorating and their value in board-feet makes it seem you are paying for gold when the lumber derived from the logs is used for flooring or to build a home. I would guess it is similar to African iron wood in that it resists most forms of degradation and pest infestation. Some people even buy old (100 years+) houses and carefully remove all the cypress that was used to build them and actually turn a tidy profit over and above what they paid for the home and they still retain the acreage purchased at the same time.
Petrified wood, from what I understand, has been inundated with soil or sand granules to the extent they are like long rocks with a wood grain. They would be difficult to saw into any kind of building material but when polished, make beautiful jewelry. The state should use the millions of shards of petrified wood as a cash cow. I bet they could rake in a lot of money in sales licensing fees and the petrified wood proceeds could be used for infrastructure, schools, etc.
Anyway, glad you stopped in and enjoyed.
Larry
Hi Ali,
I agree with your math but we are not talking about just one log. There are thousands of felled bald cypress logs in the swamp from the hundreds of hurricanes on the gulf coast. I did a little figuring myself and here is my conclusion:
Perhaps I should have said “worth their wait” in gold. Cypress averages $2.70/bf across the full spectrum of sizes and grades for lumber used in building or flooring. The guy can pull 15-20 medium sized cypress logs from the swamp with his mule each day. Each log averages 500/board ft. which renders 7500b/f to 10,000b/f for each day’s work for a total of $20,250.00 to $27,000.00 per day with little or no manual labor on his part. If he could keep up that pace for one year, he would realize from $7,391,250.00 to $9,855,000.00 per year. That is up to $2700.00/hour or the equivalent of 20 troy ounces of gold per day. His cost is feeding himself and his mule and they can eat high on the hog for $27,000.00 a day. Large mining companies have huge overhead in equipment, wages, refining, etc. Their average net after all costs is around 16% so they would have to bring in approximately $61,593,750.00 gross in gold income per employee to equivocate the income of this one guy.
This, of course, is highly metaphorical and speculative but I have heard of some guys who make well over a million a year retrieving these fallen giants. It is illegal to cut down the live Cypress without a bunch of permits, much like picking up your petrified wood shards. Besides, it’s a nice way to glorify life in the deep south.
Larry,
with tongue firmly tucked in cheek!
weigh down inside:
Larry has a Cyprus log
lodged in his cheek
logged in to check
what our Daniel had to say;
wooden you know it
cyprus chew, gnaw it
and spit out the cellulose;
watch out for slivers
watch out for silver
and spite the sell-out; you’ll lose
know it… suppress… choose
gnawing Cyprus chews
bides the time for cashing in;
gold in them thar logs
them thar golden logs
were hard for beavers to chew;
left with gilt feelings
left with gilt fillings
some beavers even lost teeth;
gumming Cyprus sucks
sucked gummy Cypress
from the swamps’ muddy waters;
cleaning cold gold cache
clinging to cold cash
muddy Cyprus hunter leaves;
good day at the mill
good day at the mill
follows a night in the swamp;
lumbering around
lumbering around
with muddy, fresh Cyprus log;
gonna mill a round
gone a million rounds
with nature and hurricanes;
Cypress knees remain
sightly knees remain
hidden for husband to share;
they like things private
privates like their things
to stay squared away without
corporal punishment
corporal punishment
is not suited for privates;
they prefer boxers
they proffer boxes
made with sawdust and cardboard;
wooden they be brief
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