The aboiteau allowed saltwater marshes to be eventually replenished with fresh water so that they would have agricultural utility. This poem uses the aboiteau, not as a commentary on Acadian history, but as a statement of my own personal journey.

“Fait beau!” is how you’re greeted when you gas up at the Co-op or when you walk by one of the yards bursting with flowers and fierté acadienne, with the Deportation of 1755 in the past, but not too much so.