Oldfield Road / Jon Lepp
This land is your land, this land is my land,
this land was made for you and me.
- Woody Guthrie
Cycling down the Cartesian line of Niagara,
the this or that, us and them line, down Oldfield Road.
Gleaming about the intricacies of lichen life,
the rotting maples and oaks and black gums,
the millions of creatures living in these
carcasses, the blue spotted salamander slumbers
in the shade, the robins singing call and responses,
the microorganisms too small for the eye, vernal
pools are carbon sinks protecting us from our
own mistakes, the mosquitoes breed in these pools.
The plant life and trees providing us oxygen.
All of this will be gone if we don't compromise.
16