We Have No Need For Scientists

We have no need

for scientists to

tell us things

we already

know

like the

sea is

rising

and the

water is

getting warm.

The inundated need no instruction in inundation.

We have eyes

of our own

and besides

we are busy

scraping

barnacles

off our grandfathers’ 

graves

and other

headstones

drowned

at high

tide.

We know

how critical

it is our

coral reefs

stay healthy

and our

mangrove

forests

dense.

We will

defend 

them

to the

end

not because

some study

shows they

provide

protection

from

erosion

or shelter

from

storms

but because

our reefs

are adoring

aunts

feeding

other

people’s

children

and our

mangroves,

mothers

in their

own right.