My sister is crying and crying
her tears grow to salt stormy showers
to rain and to rapids and rivers
they run to the sea to the sea.
My sister sobs softly she knows
she listens at shells and the shoals
she hears from fish sleeping at nightfall
she gathers from mushrooms and moulds.
Hears walking fish clear at Mayaro
black eyes popping out of their heads:
“The wind it gone out of the water
the sea things is tarred to their beds.”
Hears lichen and moss at Newcastle
as tree things brown up and go dry:
“The poisons them capture the air waves!
The land and the sea going to die.”
My sister is crying and crying
Her tears have joined up with the tide.
The shells and shallows have vanished.
The earth and the heavens divide.