The sea here used to look
As if many convicts had built it,
Standing deep in their ankle chains,
Ankle-deep in the water, to smite
The land and break it down to salt.
I was in this bog as a child
When they were all working all day
To drive the pilings down.
I thought I saw the still sun
Strike the side of a hammer in flight

And from it a sea bird be born
To take off over the marshes.
As the gray climbs the side of my head
And cuts my brain off from the world,
I walk and wish mainly for birds,
This metal vs. nature motif will be repeated later in his poem. In this particular case however, the speaker sees that despite the destruction that came with the building of this bridge, he still saw that nature would somehow persist and take back what is its own.
At Darien Bridge