Oceans and Us
2018, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Kamilo Beach, Hawaii.
I tiptoe along the coast
trying to find pieces of uncovered sand
not waterproofed by plastic trash,
little bits of microplastics sitting
with the silica grains like tiny confetti,
a celebration of mankind’s triumph —
uncalled for.
Pasig River.
Cigarettes and motor oil float together,
dangerous combination moving slowly,
about to set fire to the ocean
while we give a light, intolerable heat,
to the mouths of the rivers.
Castello Aragonese, Ischia.
I see the future from here.
The hot acrid acid burns multi-colored corals,
leaving behind white, hollow bones.
Starfish without arms
snails without shells,
sea urchins without spikes
live out their disabled life due to our acid attacks.
Most die.
We rain down carbon dioxide from the skies
just like those vents bubble up from below.
Sundarbans,.
A fisherman cuts open the measly hilsa ,
slicing its fins, head, and tail,
as his bloodline did for generations
and gives it instead to you, an appetizer
to your mussels and sushi.
His family looks hungrily at their fish,
the ones in your stomach,
while they chew on paper bills.
Baltic Sea.
An oceanic desert.
No… air… to breathe…
Sometimes we see the smooth surface
of the sea and it looks calm, lifeless
underneath
when there is life teeming.
Sometimes when we farm to create more life,
the algae blooms above,
green spreads like disease.
Everyone’s suffocating, dying,
dead.
Solomon Islands.
I point to the horizon,
where the ferocious waves begin to crest.
My home used to rest on the coast there.
Day by day,
the ocean had stepped
closer,
closer,
until one day I stood
in the middle of the water and my home,
like a polar bear clinging to a lone island.
Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma.
“Climate change isn’t real,” he said.
“A con job, a myth.”
Then tell me how these storms ravaged
your lands, moving slower and
raining down harder
with the sweet taste of revenge.
Thousands dead. The worst storms to hit
United States soil in 100 years.
If you fight the Earth for its resources,
it will fight you back.
The ocean’s life and our life is one.
Bibliography
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