Lessons from Atlantis
Bengaluru, India
2021, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
crashing rain into crashing waves
seething seas and bruising tides
whirling winds and cutting drops
every animal runs and hides
frothing anger in frothing seas
held in two hands of stone
dashing down from clouds in rain
through which no light shone
there is anger in the thunder clouds
rage in the harsh falling rain
the storms are coming, and will upturn
the world in boiling seas of pain.
this is our world, our lives reflected
in the choked ocean waves,
in the burning rain, impure, acidic
in the water, animals in their early graves.
reflected in the starving poor,
in the countless deaths
of curable disease, in the polluted
water and shortening breaths
thundering grey storm clouds
black smoke and coal dust hide
rain storms trying to cleanse the land
of plastics, that yet abide
the rising seas will drown us all
and wash from the Earth our trace
what good can an imagined wealth do
when by all, equal devastation is faced?
Reflection
Reflection
The world’s situation seems to get worse and more irredeemable each year. This and the fundamental need for water served as the inspiration for my poem. If we stop fighting to save the Earth, we will eventually never be able to save it. While writing the poem, I was struck by how little we have understood the problems that humanity’s greed has created, how little we have learnt from history and mythology, and how little time we have left to fix them. I want people who read my poem to see the multitudes of anger raging in our vast seas and oceans due to the recklessness of our species in how we have misused this natural resource. Researching water, I realized that the problems we face may be similar, but have impact of different magnitudes, with the poor bearing the brunt of it while the rich having means of mitigation. However in the end, we will all be equally incapacitated and equally harmed if we collectively do not start to solve the problem now.