Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Under the Water by Elizabeth Obadina

 Beyond Climate Change - What if?

Water descending,

Draping the earth in gossamer veils

Grey, silky, wet.

Washing wounds made by human folk

Who gaze out through windows

Glazed by rain, streaming tears,

And the water keeps falling.

 

No blue skies looking up

For the water keeps falling

And there are storm clouds gathering

 

All around the world.

All around the world

 

Folk stop

And listen to

To the water still falling

On rusty tin roofs

To the water still swishing

From traffic speeding by

To water still gushing from gutters

Vomiting the garbage of ages

Into water rumbling under

Bridges barely holding back

Waters racing in riotous revelry

Unconstrained by their banks

As the rivers run free.

 

Water falling.

Drowning the voices of

Folk

Praying

Pleading

Pacifying

Politicking

Promising

Polluting

 

Water falling

Drowning folk

 

Under the water.

Under the water

 

Whales glide through deserted

City canyons

Over barnacle encrusted buses

Above seaweed festooned fairgrounds

And playgrounds where

Tides gently rock swings back and forth

But roundabouts are rusted rigid

After the world of the folk above

Flooded

And

Lives

Stopped

Turning.

2 comments:

Irena Szirtes said...

Wow! Love the use of alliteration and repetition of certain key words and phrases to bring alive the constantly falling water, and the sense it's all too late, rolling inevitability, like the waters gathering momentum. And the fairground at the end is such a great choice to portray the flooded world. The powers that be should be made to read it!
A very powerful and beautifully written poem 👍😍

Liz said...

Many thanks Irena - I really felt powerfully about this and the writing, for once, just flowed.