bleached sun-dried bones crunch
underfoot like breadsticks,
oaks parched & gray
throw anorexic shadows
over the brown grass blades,
the riverbed dreams
of an echoing stream,
oblivious to the unnatural
order of things -
mermaids are stranded on rocks
their tails slit, gills clogged,
on a naked branch, two birds -
the biggest flock,
the profoundness of silence
is screaming through the wasteland, the absence
of beauty is ever more present,
it is not certain
the sun will rise tomorrow.
Brigita's short stories and poems have been published or are forthcoming in Rose & Thorn Journal, Cantaraville, BluePrintReview, Autumn Sky Poetry, Frostwriting, The Foundling Review, Negative Suck, The Storm at Galesburg collection, and other print and online magazines. She lives in Slovenia where she works as a literary translator. She's finishing her MA degree in writing at Swinburne , Australia. And blogs: bsoulflowers.blogspot.com.
| I wrote this
poem after the Gulf oil disaster happened in April. The situation and
the culprits' responses were so saddening that I felt I had to express
my feelings about the way we treat nature. |
