Did Angels Stop Singing? poetry by Dr Ali
Did Angels Stop Singing?
In ocean’s toxic ooze,
a dolphin,
the ocean’s canary,
circled like an inmate
in an asylum.
How do I breathe oil?
An octopus asked.
How do I eat tar?
a turtle choked.
“How do I unglue my wings,
O’ Oil-monster?”
a black bird convulsed.
Once,
loyal to its primal rhythm,
true to its inner fathom,
The ocean breathed,
the planet’s breath.
Life begot death.
Death begot life.
Nature celebrated
its eternal strife.
Then
Earth’s belly stabbed
by eco-monsters.
As a drunken medic might,
cut open a soldier’s bowels,
never trained to repair
gaping and festering wounds.
Its crust gapping,
the Earth heaved.
Spewing fires
the ocean seethed.
Pelicans died,
Politicians lied,
Oil-monsters thrived,
Demented officials survived.
Ocean’s old equilibrium busted,
Oxygen-depleted,
Methane-repleted.
Oxyphils suffocated,
Oxyphobes luxuriated.
Eternal oxygen order violated,
People perished,
Animals and plants
Suffered and sickened.
Decades after
The Earth’s belly oozed,
Ocean fermented and fumed,
In toddlers guts,
Sugar-fed critters zoomed.
Stomach health ruined,
For decades, for some,
Forever for the doomed.
The Earth trembled,
The heaven screamed,
The deep ocean seethed,
The music ceased.
Did angels stop singing?
Or,
Did people stop hearing?