Dear Editor:
Why the Tides are Angry
The oceans are swallowing the land,
We don’t see their slow ascent,
But we hear.
We hear of tsunamis,
Of climate change, of the angry tides rising.
The oceans will ravage our side of things
As the ice caps melt,
And they taste sand on their tongues,
As they lick the grime of the city streets.
But whose fault is it,
That the oceans are angry?
Angry because we feed them oil instead of fish,
Because we throw trash at their waves,
Hoping to bury our mistakes at the bottom.
But now the oceans are full,
They are sad.
The fish are gone, their homes long dead.
The coral reefs that once stretched for miles are now branches of grey.
The birds are dirty, they have nowhere to bathe
They wear coats of oil instead of sleek feathers so white.
This was never meant to happen,
The ocean was meant to live and support.
A vast, rolling blue sea.
But we melted its tall glaciers
We hunted its children
We stuffed it with waste.
And now,
we are the only things left.
So that is what the oceans will come for.
They will swallow the land that we walk on
until they reach our toes.
Then they will leave us,
Like we did them.
Without mountains and trees
And the beasts we call friends
They will take as much life from the land
As we did the water.
The oceans will swallow our home
And leave us alone
to a world that continues to grow hotter.
Elizabeth Domina
East Orland
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