Garbage

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We Have to Clean Up the Sea

We have to clean up the sea.
Cargos of steel bars, garbage,
Wooden hulls, garbage, and,
Yes, spent pile rods wait below.
We have to clean up the sea.
Perhaps the dolphins will help us,
Or the gentle creatures with their island cities
Miles below, in The Abyss.
Crates of oranges await, their rind
Commuted into interesting shapes
By pressure, and into a taste we won’t love
As we are now. Clean it up!
All the sunken coal tenders
In a hundred million years will be coal mines again
For those who want them,
But we have to clean up the sea.
And if we do not, Great Water that brought us forth,
Who kill so freely, you will never notice;
It is we who shall suffer. Perhaps our answer
Will be to return to you, and then you will kill us
Much less often.

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