A House That We Built: A Nursery Rhyme for the Gulf

David Gessner is the author of several books, including Soaring with Fidel which documents the annual migration of ospreys from Cape Cod to Cuba. Gessner is currently the editor of Ecotone, a literary journal, and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The following nursery rhyme can be found on Gessner's website with Bill Roorbach, titled Bill and Dave's Cocktail Hour.

 

This is the oil that spills from the pipe and gushes into the Gulf.

 

This is the marsh that breathes with the sea, and protects the land,

That now fills with oil

That spills from the pipe

And gushes into the Gulf.