(My entry for the 2021 Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest – ‘Water Rising’)
When formidable forces in space collided
And the naissance of Earth was rendered,
Oxygen-replete rocks and minerals ensnared hydrogen
From that pandemonium, she was engendered.
Her youth stayed bright with a hundred-watt smile,
And she radiated the delightful sunshine of ecstasy,
While her silky undulations swayed and pirouetted in grace
Her sprightly froths fizzed and giggled incessantly.
Every day, nymph like, she flowed with agility,
Her optimism only dampened by the absence of camaraderie,
Then in her presence something extraordinary ensued,
Life on Earth was conjured, and finally, she wasn’t solitary.
She caressed the first roots, and nurtured the first shoots of life,
Her ambitions grew and her heart began to sing,
With her help, emerged florae graceful and true,
She marveled at the happiness they did bring.
She opened the doors of her heart once more,
In her jigsaw puzzle, animals and birds became a crucial piece,
Harmony and balance between her and life seemed perpetual,
But as humans stepped forth, the concord was soon to cease.
By nature, she loves them, as all mothers love their children,
But she is sad that they have unremembered her benevolence,
Broken the bonds that she had so carefully crafted,
Her happiness fades with every evidence of their severance
They say that access to her generosity is a basic human right,
But that passage they have already violated, cutting short the lease,
Those who couldn’t have existed without her love and compassion,
Thoughtlessly pluck the petals of the blossoms of peace.
They pollute her, contaminate her, taint her purity mercilessly,
Arriving from factories, fields, human settlements and more,
Chemicals make merry, hosting toxic parties,
Attended by fertilisers, drugs, detergents, and microbes galore.
Climate Change, whose anger they inconsiderately incited,
Harasses her to be in excess here and be scanty elsewhere,
No longer does she have the liberty,
To be ‘just right’ everywhere.
But what shatters her completely is the unfairness of it all
Equilibrium between all creatures is the essence of life, unspoken,
But Fortune is fickle-minded, easily persuaded, dominated,
And so, scales are unbalanced and for some, the mirror is broken.
Despair and woe are gifts for some, with scales tipped to make them fall,
Cannot easily avail the ‘basic human right’, but they are still humans after all,
She reflects on inequalities in their world, her desire is to change their fate,
And a bounteous everlasting planet she wishes to recreate,
And so, for the chance to fulfil her unrealised ambition, she patiently waits.