Sunday, February 28, 2010

day 223: sinking ship

an expansion of yesterdays poem

2 weeks ago our turetic earth ticked in the aftermath of gods anger
Haiti felt catastrophe shaking in the number 7
the death toll is 233,000 and counting
today chile felt the same
learning to find fear in 8.8
2 million people have been displaced
im sitting at my computer watching the number rise
it feels too much like
haiti
katrina
indonesia
its been 50 years since chile has been shaken like this
in 1960 6k dead bodies fell through the cracks in chile, 60 sunk in hawaii

this morning i'm feeling a sense of
uncomfortable deja vu
tthere is a wall of water taunting my homeland
our children have already fallen through the cracks
im 2k miles away
the phone lines are hollow
like opened graves
i just want to speak to my mother
but there is only silence
the cadence of an awkward dial tone
i realize we have something in common
no mater how unnecessary
we repeat ourselves
no mater how uncecessary
the irony's sending shivers down my skin
my body vibrates like the earths tremors

they call this global warming
the climate is correcting itself
i call it earth rattling
quaking
plates shifting
tsumani lifting
the sea is rising
and in my tiny honolulu town
that means no more beach front property in 100 years
no island
just ocean
i hope the navy ships sink with us
because the baggage they brought along with their guns and bombs
make this island to heavy for the ocean to carry any longer

in hawaii
brown bodies are born
asthmatic choking from first inhale
running from a mountain of ocean
and there is cancer in the air
leprosy in our water
ignorance in our blood
hate in our tones
its no wonder we cannot breathe
we tell ourselves our recycling matters
that placing cans in the right bucket might make us equal
or at least save our lives
when we know
the tranformation to green from white is a lot easier than from brown
and so green is something we will never be
because we cant afford the life changing surgery

this is the reality
global warming will break the foundation of a community without even shaking the penthouse suit
so while the men and women who finance the earth deterioration play the role of its savior sipping mrtinities in hybrid glass bottom boats tallying the brown bodies that flout by
this societies soil is sinking in quicksand
our hands above our heads trying to form prayers for relief funds
trying to learn how to breathe under water
hoping that the government might soon start funneling money back into education
so the next generation, if there is one, will learn how to prevent this from every happening again
it is if the government thinks if we are uneducated we wont be able to be ashamed of them
wont understand that the elite only have faith in the privately educated
that the rest of us, dont even stand a chance

we've made life a privatized institution
only the privileged can afford to survive
only the rich will record history and live to read about it
cut the crap
its 2010
chile been hit by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake sending a tsunami to hawaii
but you see the tsunami never hit hawaii's shores
but our children were already sinking anyways
because the governments idea of solutions to the economic depression is furlough fridays
instead of cutting from our 1 trillion dollar war
we've taken school days from our future
what are we protecting
we all the know the environment is dying because our legislation is failing at teaching our children to sprout through concrete
enough with the quick fix band aids and budget cuts
when solutions are few and far between
and the ocean seems to be rising
the government needs to know that
its time to fill class rooms
not empty them
unloading our brown bodies over seas to fight terrorism will not lighten out island enough to keep it afloat

its February and we watched haiti's brown children fall from sky scrapers remembering 911 stories and news cast
and since, we've learned nothing
no terrorist has the fury of our fuming environment
the plates beneath our feets are finally striking back
THIS is the new face of terrorism
caused by the chaos of an unprepared planet

its 2010, its time for a solution
new legistlation
time to stop counting backwards to haiti, chile, Indonesia, 911
to man made disasters
we are our own worset enemies
terrorist dressed as "americans"
look around you
the death tol is rising with the sea level
we are all still counting sinking bodies
its time to decide
who's gonna be privilege enough to survive
next time

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