I'm fascinated by the fact that people are born in Florida, grow up there beneath the hot relentless sun, go to school, the supermarket, sports events. They graduate, marry, birth more like them, work, play, sleep. Over the years I was there as visitor or guest, I saw alarming things: a strawberry field razed for a condo cluster with 9 hole private golf course; a tomato field razed for a condo cluster with 9 hole private golf course; an orange grove, razed for a condo cluster with golf course. Paved six lane, two way, traffic lighted roads connect the clusters, behemoths with competing mega-drugstores alurk at every corner. On side roads I saw pawn shops, gun shops, strip clubs, coin-op laundromats, more proof of real people living real lives. Florida once housed the most diverse ecosystem in the contiguous United States. With a little digging, I discovered pockets of used-to-be. Pelicans; herons; egrets; tiny lizards flicking in and out of view like tongues; mangroves root-walking in swamps; palm trees like manacled cheerleaders; flowers too numerous to mention; alligators; dolphins; manatees; sand dollars, scotch bonnets, turkey wings, baby’s ears, mossy arks, augers, angel wings, false angel wings, ribbed cantharus, channeled duck clam, smoothduck clam, calico clam, atlantic giant cockle, broad paper cockle, horse conch, fighting conch, alphabet cone, dusky cone, paper fig, jingle shell, kitten’s paw, ladder horn, striped false limpet, keyhole limpet, marginella, calico scallop, flat zigzag scallop, banded tulip, lightning whelk. I looked these up. I have held every one of them in my own two hands, many on a single dusk beach stroll. The ravaged fight back. The photo was taken on the West Coast.
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