Frog's Lament (Star Swamp - North Beach)

As sun slips beyond horizon

They sing out, calling to each other.

Voices swell, burbling into harmony

a choral anthem vibrating with life.

Such secret creatures, hiding

in the dim of shadows. Hard to see, hard to find

Skin of motley a perfect camouflage,

laced with emerald gold filigree.

Crouching in mud, clinging to tree bark,

they gleam like precious gems

shining in a fouled habitat where pools shrink,

aquifer is drying out, draining away.

Delicate membrane is clogged,

polluted with poison, they can no longer breathe.

Their rumbling refrain urgent,

the pulse of the swamp fading into tomorrow.

Silence escalates expanding through time.

Soon they will call no more.