A Gift! A Poem by Ulrich Wendt. And What a Poem!

On the Federal Government’s Changes to the Fisheries Act

The mouth of the White Mud River is the last remaining home

Of a useless little fish – the Carmine Shiner.

It flashes ruby red to no important point

And the petty men of Ottawa can see no cash in it.

And so it has to go from the fabric of the whole.

But even though the thing is surely finished on this earth,

I raise a mild reproach.

Our dignity demands it.

             - Ulrich Wendt, May 2012