The Mobile-Tensaw Delta knows war-wind, 
knows what happens when 
the voice of thunder comes loud 
from the sky, and the Breathmaker 
blows and blows, threatens and blows, 
and the pine bend low, almost as low 
as the earth – and its needled hair 
falls loose on the footpath and the hickory 
snaps and is broken – and the oak tries 
to stand against whorls unseen 
but felt in limb-wrenching dislocation, 
the ineffable destroyer and redeemer, 
scatters tiny seeds, and bears them 
into a wildwood wilderness 
where they wait for tomorrow's sunrise 
and the warm moist nurturing mud-ground, 
primer of life for otter and owl, bobcat 
and beetle, spider, and butterfly, 
heron lifting one thin leg from settled water, 
as Dawn Man and Woman, Blue-Sky Woman 
and Twilight Man, are the never-ending 
breath of life, All Creation.