They are spraying the grass below the balcony,

There is a truck with yellow tanks

Parked in an open space on the grass

With hoses trailing across the lawn

To where two men with protective gear

Are walking back and forth

Swinging applicators in wide arcs.

They are treating every square inch of grass

With an herbicide..

What is wrong with this picture,

Besides everything!

I mean what is really broken with this picture?

I'll tell you. (Of course I will tell you!)

For one thing there is a mother duck

Who just hatched a dozen ducklings

Who is teaching them about their new world.

And, an hour before dusk,

There will be about 60 ibises arriving

That graze the yard,

Whose appearance is like clockwork.

Ibises are white birds with long red legs

And long downward curving red beaks that they use

To probe the turf for insects, grubs and worms.

I am upset and head out to find someone in charge,

Someone on the board of the condo

To find out what they are spraying.

A resident tells me that J (who is on the board)

Is on the second floor of the building

Inspecting an apartment.

I find him and ask him what they are spraying.

He doesn't even know they were scheduled to spray.

He says, "I'll call B who probably ordered the spraying"

Before he headed north on a business trip.

B says it's a pesticide

But he doesn't know the name of the product.

J says, Let's go ask the workers,

Wondering aloud if they speak English

As we head for the truck.

Good timing,

The two sprayers are taking a break.

J asks what the herbicide is called.

They don't know but one locates a bottle.

Celsius WG.

With this I head up to our apartment

To look up the data sheet online.

Apparently it is relatively safe for birds

Once it has dried.

Since they are almost done spraying

That means that there is about 1 1/2 hours

For the chemicals to dry before

The ibises show up.

It is sunny and hot out so there is a chance that

The birds will be minimally affected.

I am relieved but remain agitated and confused.

Is this just Florida craziness

Or is this how it is everywhere?

In 1967 Norman Mailer wrote

"Why are we in Vietnam".

It was not about Vietnam exactly.

The word "Vietnam" only occurs twice in the novel -

Once in the text and once on the last page.

It is about what is "off" about the archetypal,

uninitiated American male.

He follows the story of three men, Texans

On a hunting expedition in Alaska to shoot a trophy grizzly.

That is Mailer's explanation for why we were in Vietnam.

And why, by extension, we keep fighting war after war.

Because modern Western man

Has not found his place in the world.

Making war and fighting with everything

Or needing to control everything,

Seems to be how the archetypal male

Compensate feeling lost and inadequate.

I get that. You probably do too.

But insects??

I can almost understand why a man,

In desperate search of his manhood,

Might go after a big-ass bear, for bragging rights,

But why does B have to order the spraying of a pesticide

In a place where I have been staying for over two months

And, (no exaggeration), the whole time we have been in FL

I have counted 3 flies.

There have been a few dragonflies

At two of the beaches, but

I have only encountered 2 spiders

And probably about 5-8 butterflies,

With the one exception of a place called Green Cay,

About a 45 minute drive from here

On the outskirts of North Palm Beach.

Green Cay is a 25 acre nature preserve that used to be an industrial farm

25 years ago.

Cay means island, but this Green Cay is only an island metaphorically.

It is a tiny natural paradise for native species of plants,

Insects, amphibians, reptiles and birds.

The question for me is,

Why am I in Florida?

I mean I know the obvious reasons -

Because I'm retired and

We inherited a place where we can stay,

And the climate is good for my 74-year-old body.

But there is a deeper reason.

I think I am here to reflect on who I really am

And what really matters to me.

You see, that might actually be easier to plumb

In a place that seems to be anti-

A lot of things I stand for.

Like the right of ibises to graze on this green space

Without me having to worry about

What the grass has just been sprayed with!

I am not in Florida to ask, Why are we in Gaza?

Or Why are we in Ukraine?

I will ask that no matter where I am,

Or why are we always at war

And presumably always going to be at war.

Men are at war because they are uninitiated..

They can't not be at war.

And after fighting and winning some and losing some

If they survive to the age of 50 or 60 or 70

They will sit around with other men and get fat and

Talk about sports and investments

And cars and politics and joke and brag to each other,

But they don't question why the world is the way it is.

I'm convinced of that.

And I'm almost convinced that they never will.

And maybe the average man doesn't miss insects

The way I do,

But thinks his world is better without them.

Or cares little if the ibises are poisoned or not.

How about you guys who are reading this?

Do you care about these things?

That is the kind of question

That comes up for me in FL.

What do we care about

Enough to do something about it?

Final word: It's dusk

And the ibises never showed, not one.
........
update: Three evenings have passed since the herbicide was sprayed on the condo lawn here (quite extensive) and for three days running the ibises have been a no show. I am worried that they are not coming back, and I don't blame them.

(Article changed on Mar 21, 2025 at 10:13 AM EDT)