There’s this ditch though they call it a bayou
Made by humans and a backhoe
Straight across the landscape
Unlike any natural feature
Alongside road or fencepost
Draining the soil oozy like gumbo
The water table nearly at the surface
In a topography essentially flat
As the spoonbills could testify
With their tapas of crawfish
No hills to obstruct the view
Of a traffic light miles ahead
And the lowest place this bayou or ditch
Gives its name on the one hand
To a fragile culture negotiating nature
A name endorsed by local opinion
On the other to filth akin to that of gutter or open sewer
Organic matter rich in decay
Sometime destination
Of a pickup truck discovered in morning
And in this ditch or bayou see
Flowers five-petalled of lavender hue
Languid atop frail vinelike stems
Observed only here in this ditch or bayou
And heart cannot help but rejoice
In beauty that persists the long summer long
And how should we feel
About the blossom in the scar
In our helpless admiration

The big tiger swallowtail a similar mystery
Which science could solve and probably has
How it gets airborne on two slices of playing card
With ragged edges and intricate design
No tipoff of an airfoil
A bit clumsy really
Unlike the dragonfly that darts and hovers
Or the clever mosquito feinting in light and dark
The swallowtail browses in lowest place
With ungainly dignity
Lighting only briefly
Making quick withdrawals
Or exercising the judgments of taste
The human eye incapable of registering
The insect’s rejection or acceptance
Of nectarous pleasure or fonts disgusting or spent
Near shrubs implanted by humans and a shovel
For the express purpose of attracting butterflies
But the butterfly prefers the ditch flowers
As Sgt. York yearned for bottom land
But he came from the hills
These are the judgments that clot our nomenclature
A taste for example for romance and local color
Button accordion and crawfish po’ boy
As seen on YouTube and Food Network
These the names that disturb our judgment
Through which we observe or see
Name and calculate
Ditch or bayou