Looking earnest,
the conservationists stand
at overflowing ponds,
products of dams, praising
the waddling, slick-furred
rodents whose efforts might
save our overheated planet.
Though scroll further
and you’ll find woodsmen
lugging sticks from drainage
ditches, clearing log jams
that might inundate their land.
Pro and con, both sides
appear in jeans and flannels.
Ignoring their photo op,
the beavers continue
gnawing trees, hustling logs,
fitting together family lodges.
Once we killed them for hats,
now we debate their place
in our human-dominated era.
Like water in its seasons
the value that we assess
to animals falls and rises,
but the world that beavers
make, whatever its worth to us,
remains glorious in itself
and true to what sustains them.
—
Chris Bullard is a retired judge who lives in Philadelphia. In 2022, Main Street Rag published his chapbook, Florida Man, and Moonstone Press published his chapbook, The Rainclouds of y. Finishing Line Press has accepted his chapbook, Lungs, for publication in 2025. He was nominated this year for the Pushcart Prize.
