A Great Salt Marsh

“To stand at the edge of the sea,

to sense the ebb and flow of the tides,

to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh,

to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up

and down the surf lines of the continents

for untold thousands of year,

to see the running of the old eels

and the young shad to the sea,

is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly

eternal as any earthly life can be.”

Rachel Carson, The Edge of the Sea (1955)

Grand Isle, Louisiana.

Now irreversibly drenched in oil.