The flowers will fade to
stone and the hills will choke the rivers
we will swim in the
sludge and paddle to keep our heads above
Our eyes scanning the
skies for a sight of the stars beyond the smog
The people in boats still
dream of children and music but avert their eyes
from the bobbing heads in
the lonely seas that have turned their guts out
The fish have gone and so
have the dolphins, only the barnacles cling on
The guardians were asleep
when their need was the most
may I smile, I wonder, at
this cruel twist of fate
for we were promised
better and we aspired for much that wasn't
It was not at the end of
the street, so we built it further; we were told
the road would end at the
oasis of cool darkness and warm moonlight
and so we built it with
our bleached bones and the fossils of dinosaurs
