Talking with old friends
who've lived for years
along a quiet street
out on the Bottoms
once wetlands then farmland
thanks to the Army Corps
protected from the Bay
by dikes and channels
aptly named and long since occupied
by rows of houses
neither shacks nor mansions
but solid homes
now threatend by the ocean rise
already underway just not quite yet
the inundation that we know is coming
in twenty years or ten
or even sooner
no one can say for sure
but what my friends told me
was happy as they've been
with where they are
they've started looking for a place
on higher ground
and as I'm hearing this I can't help thinking
how fortunate are we
who have the means
before the flooding starts
to move to higher ground