An Alchemy of Words

Watabog Slough

"Watabog Slough"

I remember a place called Watabog Slough

filled with dark silent waters and willows and reeds.

Now, something there happened, if memory serves true,

for that was where Ivan McGurchy once grew.

He was a strange little man, I mean stranger than most,

I mean he filled in the slough, saying "That's what it needs!"

and fenced it all off with white-painted posts,

'til the willows and reeds where nothing but ghosts.

The people rebelled, tried all that they could

but against Ivan McGurchy, it did them no good.

Each inch of Watabog Slough he covered with tar.

"This is an outrage!" the people all cried.

"Have you no feelings? A wilderness died!"

But on top of Watabog Slough, the now park their cars.