This poster is by talented 13-year old
Harshitha Mattapally, of India
One of the many ponds in our area-
much larger, of course, than the one in my poem,
which I picture in a corner of a freshly clearcut area,
zoned for condominiums
Mother Frog is singing her spring song,
as she lays her frogspawn
along the edges of the pond.
Deep in the bullrushes,
she sinks into a sleepy, contented torpor,
dreaming of all the little tadpoles
who will soon be waking
into their first spring.
But wait!
She is startled awake
as the ground shakes beneath her,
toppled off her lily-pad
into the water,
where she hops up quickly
to the top of a log
to see
-horrors!-
a yellow bulldozer
heading her way,
its giant claw raised,
then tipping
a load of loose dirt -
pond, mom and babies,
all gone
as it then backs away.
Hannah has set us a cool challenge over at Real Toads for her Transforming Fridays : to write about the endangered frog species for Save the Frogs day. Great prompt, Hannah. I learned a lot. If we are going to save these necessary creatures, we need to be informed.
At Save the Frogs I learned amphibians are the most endangered group of animals on the planet. No wonder, with habitat destruction, pesticides and pollution, global warming and climate change all contributing to their distress. Not to mention the appalling $40 million trade in frogs-legs.
"For 250 million years, this hardy species outlived dinosaurs, ice ages, volcanic eruptions and asteroid crashes," says Save the Frogs director Kerry Kriger. "Yet in the last 50 years, we have driven one third of the species to the verge of extinction."
A whole new dismal slant on why "it isn't easy being green."
Your poem is an eye-opener, Sherry!!
ReplyDeleteIt scares me how easily a multi-million year old species can be wiped out by man's carelessness and greed. When will it all end?
ReplyDeleteI love this point of view Sherry ~ It is shocking to know that and eehhh to eating frog legs ~ I much rather they inhabit and swim far away from us ~
ReplyDelete'driven' is right: so many are being run over when they migrate from dry areas to lakes and reservoirs for spawning.
ReplyDeleteThe raw truth. Poof, we've destroyed nature and tipped the ecology scales :(( Well done. Definitely raises awareness.
ReplyDelete50 years... And we know how important conservation is. I hate it when money is all that matters!
ReplyDeleteOh no! Poor mother frog and pond! I was hoping the tractor would sink in the mud and disappear!
ReplyDeleteheart touching depiction of a frog's plight.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Peggy, better the tractor should sink than kill pond and mom and babies, but that's the way the world is. And how many other species are killed at the same time?
ReplyDeleteRemember the "rearing ponds" in the hills outside Kelowna? I don't remember what the purpose was, but we had a 21-year-old biology teacher who took the class up to the ponds, armed with glass jars and lids. I told him I didn't want wildlife in my jar, and he promised me it would just be vegetation. Of course, I knew better, so I scooped me up some pond, put the lid on tightly so it wouldn't splash me, then screeched at the top of my lungs, "I've got creepy crawly critters in my pond scum!" When the poor young man came over to investigate, I threw my arms around his neck and screeched again, "You said there wouldn't be any bugs!"
Poor guy, only 21 and with a (he thought) high-strung teenager hanging from his neck. He didn't dare pat me on the back or anything, so he just turned bright red with mortification.
I am still ashamed of myself, but it still makes me laugh.
K
We bulldoze everything for concrete and construction...there seems to be little done to stop it. Thanks for your awareness this frog day!
ReplyDeleteI basically give up, cos the ones with the money and power are never the ones like us who love nature.
ReplyDeleteYou've painted their reality so boldly, Sherry and I'm grateful for your commentary. Thank you so much for writing!! :)
ReplyDeleteProgress. We run rough shod without giving consideration to the collateral damage, shame shame on us.
ReplyDeleteSo sad..that yellow Alien stole their future and ours....
ReplyDeleteShock is good here Sherry!
Well Done...
Habitat destruction is a huge problem, and, like FB says, the profit motive usually outweighs all else. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteHow sad, one of my fondest childhood memories is playing at a pond with my friend Ed, it was full of frogs and tadpoles, such wonder nature holds.
ReplyDeleteI hate being present at a murder. Your poem, like mine (though in fantasy)--cannot predict a happy ending. I'd like an inter-species one, where people refuse to budge from the bulldozer's path.
ReplyDelete