Crocodile Swamp Poem by Kelly Boutin

Crocodile Swamp is a place that we go
when our hearts are down in the bottom of the gloom
when the crocodile eyes and the bottomless skies
feel like a peaceful place.

Reach in the swamp, pull up a root,
whose heart was this that never grew?
Crocodiles, are you my friends?
Reach from the swamp and pull me in.

I never wanted to live in a swamp,
but some things you can't change
after all, the Spanish moss
grows everywhere when it rains.

And cypress trees fall to their knees
as I stand in their wake
maybe I'll grow up like a tree
or maybe they'll take my place...

And fall into the Crocodile Swamp
where their hearts break off in little chunks
and their legs reach up like broken stumps
and try to pull me in...

Crocodiles, I'm coming in,
I can't swim anyway
and every time I try to stand,
I just fall to my knees.

I was never meant to be a cypress,
I was never meant to be a mangrove,
I was never meant to die here
so far away from my home.

But there's nobody here to save me
except the crocodiles,
so, Crocodile Baby,
come show me what it's like

in Crocodile Swamp.