At Burton Island Nature Preserve
Perhaps it doesn’t make much difference
but I want to be precise when I talk about
what’s happening to the trees here on the bay
So I pause and look them up
to incur and to intrude
and indeed there’s not a lot of difference
Although incursion’s more a running in
and out much like the salty tide has staged a raid
beneath the trees along the bay
Whereas intrusion’s got that worrisome weight
of unwelcome guests who might or might not stay
but as I say not very different
And neither seems quite right
attributing a sort of willfulness to waves
that lap the roots of trees around the bay
Which lets us off the hook
though I suppose in any case
it doesn’t make much difference
to these dead trees here on the bay
—
Since retiring from Prince George’s Community College in 2021, Dennis Huffman has volunteered as a “Weed Warrior” in the parks near his home. In 2023, he published Decolonizing the Park, a collection of poems and photographs about invasive plants. He is also a facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal. He lives in Takoma Park, MD.
