avon bottoms is a flat floodplain of the sugar river with a maple-oak forest. many southern-ranging species of plants find the northern edge of their range in the woods. swenson wet prairie s.n.a. is now part of avon bottoms as well.

a.

the floodplain is laced

with marbled ice

beneath an early moon

b.

golden hue of big stem

below the swooping ash—

families play in the bottom

c.

the sugar river ambles on

past fragrant bottomland

extremities grow cold

d.

the dead-grass tapestry

of winter wetlands

is widely undervalued