{"id":37,"date":"2015-05-26T19:29:34","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T19:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=37"},"modified":"2015-05-26T19:51:31","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T19:51:31","slug":"an-ode-to-the-angered-angler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=37","title":{"rendered":"An ode to the angered angler"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"angler\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Way up in the north where the Susquehanna grows<\/p>\n

And the pipelines follow south where it flows<\/p>\n

And the deer herd dwindles \u2013 especially the does<\/p>\n

Is the land of the angered angler.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deep in the endless mountains, they say<\/p>\n

If you look close enough, still to this day<\/p>\n

You can still see the footprints, the forked laurel branch<\/p>\n

Left by the angler, who could not, would not stay.<\/p>\n

Where was the angler \u2013 where could he be?<\/p>\n

And why was he angry? Why did he flee?<\/p>\n

From up in the north where the Susquehanna flows?<\/p>\n

The old fracker still lives here.<\/p>\n

Ask him. He knows.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t see the fracker.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not very big.<\/p>\n

He hides in the crown block on top of his rig.<\/p>\n

He lurks in that crown block, as high as a crow<\/p>\n

And warms his brown socks while dodging the snow<\/p>\n

Using the gas that he pilfered from way down below.<\/p>\n

Go ask him, I tell you, go ask him today.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll tell you, he will, if you\u2019re willing to pay.<\/p>\n

Why the angler was angered and went far away.<\/p>\n

It all started way back, such a long, long time back \u2026<\/p>\n

Way back in the day when the river was clean<\/p>\n

And the bass had no lesions, their eyesight still keen<\/p>\n

And the trees were all dense, the critters content<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the day he arrived and set up his tent.<\/p>\n

In that pristine wilderness, he started to dig<\/p>\n

Using equipment bigger than big<\/p>\n

And plowed through the trees,<\/p>\n

Knocked them all flat<\/p>\n

He could have cared less for such habitat.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, with the sound of a cast<\/p>\n

And a zinging brown fly that flew right on past,<\/p>\n

The angler was there with barbed hooks galore<\/p>\n

He walked to the rig, he knocked on the door.<\/p>\n

And he demanded the fracker drill there no more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI,\u201d said the angler, \u201cspeak for the fish<\/p>\n

Which you seem to pollute as much as you wish<\/p>\n

The bass are all splotchy, the snakes have no home<\/p>\n

You ran them all over with trucks caked with chrome<\/p>\n

And the deer have less room to graze and to roam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou fool,\u201d said the fracker, \u201cstop griping \u2013 stop grumping.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on he continued with digging and dumping.<\/p>\n

The river glazed over, the creeks slowly died<\/p>\n

The bass couldn\u2019t breed, their organs all fried.<\/p>\n

The squirrels and the chipmunks, the deer and the snails<\/p>\n

The eagles, the salamanders and a few cottontails<\/p>\n

They all fled the land, looking for food.<\/p>\n

While the fracker drilled there, all greedy and rude.<\/p>\n

As the angler got angry, the fracker cashed in<\/p>\n

Until all the gas, and his wallet, got thin.<\/p>\n

And then, only then, did he see his mistake<\/p>\n

As he walked past a poisoned and decaying snake<\/p>\n

And faced the angler, who was red in the face.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook what I\u2019ve done to this wonderful place!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve turned it into a home of great waste!\u201d<\/p>\n

The angler, he left \u2014 he just disappeared<\/p>\n

Leaving the fracker alone, stroking his beard<\/p>\n

When he realized something both ironic and weird:<\/p>\n

Everyone, he thought, loved the fracked gas<\/p>\n

They used it for heating, for cooking their bass<\/p>\n

They shelled out their money, they made him mad rich<\/p>\n

And he drilled them more gas, all without hitch<\/p>\n

And they all were blind to the one glaring glitch.<\/p>\n

Everyone, that is, but that guy with the hooks<\/p>\n

The one who gave him such not-so-nice looks<\/p>\n

The angler was the one who tried taking a stand<\/p>\n

Who stood for the fish, who stood for the land.<\/p>\n

If only there were more who together would band \u2026<\/p>\n

The sportsmen, the anglers, the hunters, the trappers<\/p>\n

the campers, the farmers, the trail-bound horsebackers<\/p>\n

All of them united, all with one voice<\/p>\n

Do you, faithful reader, plan to make the right choice?<\/p>\n

Then join in the cause, save the Valley\u2019s outdoors<\/p>\n

Before our natural treasures are heard from no more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way up in the north where the Susquehanna grows And the pipelines follow south where it flows And the deer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30,4,29,26,31,28,27,32],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoors","tag-angler","tag-featured","tag-fishing","tag-fracking","tag-gas","tag-impaired","tag-river","tag-susquehanna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/39"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}