Field Trip

Today our classroom is the Chesapeake.
The dock is our desk.
We read the water,
combing the pages
for blue crabs, grass shrimp, and plankton.
We stand on the map
we studied at school.
Diagrams we labeled
wriggle in our hands.
Our socks are wet.
Our hands are red and chapped.
We shiver in the wind
that blows across the bay
as memories nestle in our heads
like mud crabs among oysters.
Today our classroom is the Chesapeake.
Our teacher is the world.

We had a great day at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. We combed oyster bars for mud crabs and grass shrimp. We checked the turbidity, salinity, and pH of the water. We seined and checked crab pots and looked at plankton under microscopes. It was a great day of learning and we weren’t near any desks.

© Elizabeth Steinglass, all rights reserved, 2015