Nothing We Give ✓

NOTHING

NOTHING IS the same. Not the deep porcelain of the ocean, the tranquil swooshes of water beating against each other. Not the blue, the deep blue that got darker and darker the further you got or the sand that stuck to my feet. Remembering the sea to be so beautiful, a treasure box of gems, and now walking along the shore where only charred pieces of glass and sliced bottles swept by feet breaks a piece of you.

The blue wasn't the same colour, instead a musty brown from crude oil and filth washed the land and crept up my bare feet. The shore bounced back and forth, each time bringing up a different wadded up paper or plastic water bottle. Remembering tiny fish not even the size of a thumb roamed the shore and now seeing scraps of junk hurts you. Nothing beautiful to see.

Nothing but crass filth, a new landfill for the earth.

WE

WE DID that, nothing else. As humans we deflect, we place blame, we hide from the truth. We divert just the idea that once long ago there was grass where what we now step on as a concrete path. We hide from the fact that we're careless, that we do things for our own gain. We blame nature, the beautiful gift the world has given us, knowing fully well that us alone are the only things to condemn.

We do it, but we don't care. Not when we gain from being reckless. Because when you see a wadded piece of paper drowning carelessly in the ocean, I see a fish choking to its death. When a bottle floats away to the depths of an ocean, think about how many creatures of the sea have cut their throats on the shards of glass. We're killers and we're vultures. We take, but we don't give.

The waves call to us, they scream for help, a change, a new beginning. Its voice as plump as the sand and clear as the sky. The shore sweeps by my feet again, enclosing where I stand.

We're better than this.

GIVE

GIVE IT love, give it hope, give the ocean a change. A person is a drop of rain. Together, we can be as huge as a tsunami. Not alone though, and never alone. Change isn't possible with just one person. It starts with one, then two, then three, until you find everyone doing just the same, standing together. We're similar like that. We're followers, even our leaders.

Looking at the deep ocean a reflection wavers back, not myself, but a person disguised just the same. I find I'm not alone, a fish swims carelessly in its sanctuary. I remember who I am, who we all are. Extortionists, killers of all things beautiful. Because in the end we're all the same, even me. Addicted to taking all we can and forgetting the footprints of darkness and corruption we leave behind.

Nothing do we give.

nosa ibie<3