Hemlocked Heart

I’ll glide right through wetlands, wasting a day or two
With my watery kin, who dwell content in deep rivers
Their currents full of eels and piranha and caiman. 

I’ll delight daily in seeing them gurgle and churn
As my presence glazes them into snowglobes
With my frigid hand stretched out to mourn

My cousins, my friends will now know my cruelty
I’ll walk on through the wasteland, each step filled with vile
Fragile plantains and pineapples with shudder and wilt

I’ll leave in my wake wreckage, deep-rooted carnage
Then pass on to landscapes that know me so well
Familiar chilled heart yet to thaw from momentary encounter.