All the Names We Call the Sea
Toronto, Canada
2021, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
the sea is man’s cradle,
said the salmon.
from pearlescent foam came life,
as a fish crawled onto land.
from fins he fashioned hands and feet
to run, to write, to build.
and there marked the era of man,
but was it genesis or apocalypse?
the sea is the first mother,
said the salmon.
for her infinite generosity bore
plant and creature, predator and prey.
see how her ambrosial waters run through hot sand,
as she turns wasteland into forest.
watch how every river and stream greets
each other like a brother as they return
to the sea like veins to a heart.
the sea is my property,
said man.
for if he could build great cities and mould
the earth, then surely the waters were his to tame.
the world could only watch as man’s ebony gas
dyed the sky’s nacre shine into an ashen husk.
the world could only watch as man’s sanguine
tailings seeped and poisoned the rivers.
the world could only watch as the first mother
wept for her dead sons, bound by chains
of politician promises.
the sea is dying,
whispered the salmon.
By 2100, sea levels will rise between
30 and 100 cm due to global warming.
the sea is dying,
the salmon said louder.
By 2100, 200 million people in the world
will live below the sea level line.
the sea is dying,
screamed the salmon.
but apocalypse had already fallen upon
humanity, and the sea was dead.
only the harbinger of gluttony was left, and she
sought to swallow the earth whole. now it was
man’s turn to watch as raging tsunamis engulfed
his shorelines and his great cities. and as man tried
to water his crop with oil, he could only lament
and wish that
he had listened to the salmon sooner.
Reflection
Reflection
In the Chinese folktales I grew up with, symbolism through animals was integral in delivering a moral lesson to the reader. Roosters were reliable, pigs were optimistic, and butterflies meant you would live a long life. Since then, I have always been drawn to the world of symbolism and hidden meanings. In my piece, the poem is almost read like a folktale and centers around man and the salmon. Man unsurprisingly symbolizes humankind, but the salmon also represents humanity, just a different side. In Native American culture, the salmon totem signifies the determination to fight for the things important to you. Like the salmon, we are fighting an upstream battle to save the ocean and the world. With every news headline and pipeline deal, climate change becomes a more daunting task that an insignificant individual could never hope to solve. But the world watching isn’t going to take plastic out of the ocean, prevent the bleaching in our coral reefs, and stop the water from rising. Humanity may be multi-faceted, but the sea is not. We only have one, and we need to work hard to save it.