-
for L.E.C.
A word arises from everyday speech
where it has hidden in plain sight.
Even if the petroleum engineer,
pat and pompous, inspired no trust,
who’s to say he didn’t speak the truth
when he whispered after breakfast, She’s a keeper?
He’d been regaling guests, the innkeeper,
and you and me with oil talk. Each
sat politely, listening, when in truth
we were ready to leave the table. The site,
not far from Eastport, he was visiting on trust.
LNG work, hoped the engineer.
I barely heard him; knowing you were near
was all for me. I wanted only to keep
the day intact, to allow myself the trust
to see it as the dawn’s kept promise. Each
day should follow steadily, in clear sight
of its first limning. But the plain truth
was, Eastport greyed, so we drew a line true
east, to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, near
enough, though just across the border. The sight
of you mirrored on water made me keep
reminding myself of endings, that each
vision cannot help but fade, that trust
is loss’s opposite and twin. Trust
me, you said on Navy Island, truly
no one can see us: look how small each
window in the town appears. Later, nearing
shore, we spied a lighthouse with no keeper.
Our dragonfly kayak soon vanished from its sight.
The restaurant proprietor sighted
an imaginary line across the bay. Trust
us, the gas company says, keeping
progress back is futile. But the truth
is, the behemoth tankers will run near
the whales and seals. He sighed, End of speech.
Canada, keep steady: stay out of reach.
You’re all I trust, Lara: hold me near.
Let’s not lose sight of clear water’s truth.
Author’s
note: On a trip through
Maine in 2005, I made the acquaintance of a petroleum engineer at the
inn where I stayed en route to St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Once
in St. Andrews, I learned that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility
that the engineer was designing was the subject of much dismay on both
sides of the Bay of Fundy, one of the most pristine bays in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Good fortune and the hard work of local activists has recently intervened; as of November 2007, Downeast LNG, the company proposing the terminal, had withdrawn its application before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the company's plan to site part of the pipeline in the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The threat of an LNG facility in the region still looms, however, as another company, Quoddy Bay LNG, advances its plan for an LNG terminal on lands owned by the Passamaquoddy tribe near Eastport.
Other communities across the nation continue
to battle the construction of LNG terminals; closer to my own region,
the town of Astoria, Oregon is currently fighting several plans for
LNG terminals near the mouth of the Columbia River. All of these LNG
projects—encouraged by
provisions in the 2005 Bush energy bill—would disrupt the feeding
and migration of marine wildlife and pose a constant threat to human
health and safety. And despite the regional flavor of their names,
none of the companies involved are long term residents of the places
their plans would despoil.
