Boil Over
Miami, FL
2021, Senior, Performing Arts
I’m breathing slop, dirty water
The sea swells, something in her tide
These trillion tons of sludge, an altar
For fish full of mercury, dyed
Red like copper
Rolling in her appetite
We’re pulling cars out of seaweed floods
We’ve struck the tinderbox
I’ll watch the waves take what I adore
I’ll watch the waves gorge on the shore
Acid rain again, houses underwater
Poison in the wind, oil in all channels
Engines bleeding flame, foul fumes in rivers
Floating in methane, it’s all boiling over
It’s all boiling over…
It’s all boiling over…

Reflection
Reflection
As someone who lives in Miami, Florida, it is immensely sad to see how the poor conditions we humans have forced upon the earth will someday lead to my home being lost to the growing ocean. This song acts as a sort of call-out of all of the harm we humans have done to our earth, and how that harm is now coming back to punish us, almost as if the earth, and subsequently the ocean, is taking revenge against our act of metaphorically lighting the fire in the first place. With global warming, I liked the metaphor of the ocean boiling over, as it captured both the idea of the water rising as icecaps melt, as well as our fire coming back to burn us. I used the instrumental to allude to waves and the calm, sereneness of the ocean before building it up into a storm of revenge that ultimately explodes, foreshadowing the fate we humans seem to have bound ourselves to. This song is a rebuke of the current conditions of the world and a warning to take action against climate change that hopefully the listener heeds.