If I Could Speak Loon

If I Could Speak Loon
By Karen I. Shragg

If I could speak Loon
Or maybe Egret
Heron would be nice
I’d tell them all to fly further
Than the gulf this year
Look down my friends
The ocean there
is the color of greed
the consistency of deregulation
Don’t land where you have before
Don’t follow in the wingsteps
Of your ancestors
Not this time
Fly beyond the blackened oily waters
That have already ended so many
unsuspecting lives
Who would never understand
What befell them
even if I could speak loon
or egret or even heron
Where on earth would I begin?