grains of sand

[alexconall]

the ocean is bigger than the shore
the seas are on the rise
inevitable
inexorable
time to move away from the sea
dispossess yet more people of the only home they know
build more house farms
occupy more Native land
and yet I stand
one grain of sand

they say the seas rose against
the dike in the Netherlands
and a little boy saw a hole
and plugged it with his finger
and saved his town
there is no wall on the Eastern Shore
I know firsthand
and here I stand
one grain of sand

the seas are on the rise
if I believed in gods
I would think it cosmic vengeance
for mistreating this world
but I do not believe
and I believe no help is coming
unless from us ourselves
and we all misunderstand
so here I stand
one grain of sand

imagine how much sand
it might take to build a wall
of glass along the Eastern Shore
and save New York and New England
so I must stand
one grain of sand

I speak of the United States
as though the danger
to estadounidenses
is the only danger that matters
they're evacuating Pacific Islanders
from each low-lying island
so I must stand
one grain of sand

and I feel so alone

I know there are others
but we are few and poor
we live in the margins
we do not have the power
to save our land
and yet we stand
handful of sand

one grain won't make a glass wall
or break a glass-cliff fall

but one grain may make a pearl



grains of sand by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.