so small (freebie for May Bear In Chair Prompt Call)

[alexconall]

The earth is large.
The sea is large.
It seems, when standing on the shore,
that one could sail forever east
or walk forever west
and never meet another shore.
But 'large' is finite,
not endless.
The shore is there,
just out of sight.

I read once
years ago
to take an apple.
Quarter it. Three fourths are the oceans.
Salt water. Not safe to drink.
Half the fourth quarter is non-arable land.
Three fourths of that half
are arable land on which people live
or soil too poor to grow food.
Peel the fourth quarter, it said,
and save the skin,
the topsoil
of farms.
Treat it, it said,
like your life depends on it.

So small.

The earth is so small.
The ocean, so small.

We think the rains will always come
clear and clean and soft fresh water
and the rivers will always run
clear and clean and soft fresh water
and the fish will always swim
and the seaweed always grow.

But the ocean is so small
and the trash—
who was it said
Pestilence retired
complaining of penicillin
and Pollution stepped up
to join War, Famine, and Death?
—the trash is ever-growing,
because it is cheaper
to throw excess and waste away
than to deal with it
sustainably.

And money is not potable,
and the ocean is so small.

There is a great deal of water on Earth,
there is,
but look at a liter bottle of water.
Pour out one shot-glass full.
The rest of the liter is ocean.
Salt water. Not safe to drink.
From the shot glass,
pour two-thirds into
an ice cube tray
and freeze it.
Hard to drink ice.
Now, take an eyedropper
and take a single drop
from the shot glass.
The rest of the shot,
pour into the garden
for it is groundwater.
Save that one drop of water,
all the sweet water on the earth's surface,
every river and lake and pond and stream.
Treat it like your life depends on it.

Isn't it small?



so small by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Comments

[sylvaine]

<3

[alexconall]

\o/