Remnant Swamp, Planted Woodlot, Garden

My paternal grandparents planted 50 black walnut trees on their land in the 1960s. This land abutted a remnant of the Great Black Swamp, and was just across the border from Toledo, Ohio. They also nurtured a large garden and berry patch. It was here that I first saw a garter snake eat a strawberry, heard an overwhelming chorus of spring peepers, and learned to slowly back away from a rattler. This land, all of it, has been cleared of house and garden, the walnuts cut, the snakes scattered, the swamps drained and filled. These are my beloved ghosts, my familiars, buried beneath a developed sameness that marches across America.