Ambystomid poems

[Jefferson]

Tiger Salamander (Eastern)
You are the most secretive mole salamander, with the soulful, bulging eyes of a frog,
Burrowed two feet deep beneath a Northern Indiana log.
You are the tiger of your mysterious underground decidous lair,
With days filled with a series of lazy, worm-eating tears.
In the salamander world, you are the most robust,
Your migration to the vernal pool driven by an instinctive lust.
You make the lower Midwest a great place to be,
If yourself, the Eastern Tiger, is on the list of possible to see.
Marbled Salamander
When trying to find you, the elegant species of black and white,
I find you put up one heck of an elusive fight.
You breed in a remote Southern Illinois marsh,
When the cold spring rain and wind make conditions quite harsh.
You home is the land where Lincoln was born,
When I find you, it's always on a cool, foggy Midwestern morn'.
Your eyes are black and circular like a Great White shark,
On any boy's memory you can leave a permanent mark.
Although your existance, to some, may be quite unknown and garbled,
I know where to see the salamander that tells the story of the frontier-the Marbled.