Beavers Give

beavers building to the obsessive degree  
their food and their home are the trees  

finely stacked logs from stream bank to bank  
it's a brand new world they create  

a pond ready for life - come one come all  
it's a place made for creatures large and small  

deer graze its young grasses drink deeply the water  
turtles come forthright where ducks fly to gather  

frogs sing laying eggs after eggs  
tadpoles swim freely growing new legs  

zipping like zippers go dragonflies  
on a single day mayflies live and they die  

Catfish and bass like the deep parts the best  
blue heron thin and tall camouflaged on her nest  

with fine-fingered hands raccoons clean their food  
a snake swims away and into the woods  

geese call out warnings for all to hear  
out of thick undercover visits a bear  

crawdads play amongst minnows  
geese dip headfirst into the water way down low  

spiders, water striders, mosquitoes, and beetles, live  
because of the beavers and the pond that they give