Emerg Infect Dis

EID

Emerging Infectious Diseases

1080-60401080-6059

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

2876772

07-9999

10.3201/eid1312.079999

Another Dimension

Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle

Manfred

Freya

122007

131219711971

I spy his head above the waves,

big as a man’s fist,

black eyes peering at me,

until he dives into darker, deeper water.

Yesterday I saw him a foot from my outstretched hand,

already tilting his great domed shell away.

Ribbons of green moss rippled behind him,

growing along the ridge of his back

and down his long reptilian tail.

He swims in everything he knows,

and what he knows is never forgotten.

Wisely, he fears me as if I were the Plague,

which I am, sick unto death,

swimming to heal myself in his primeval sea.

Published by RED DRAGONFLY PRESS, Northfield, Minnesota; email: kings@rconnect.com