"Two wrongs may not make a right but a thousand wrongs make a writer.”

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

The Wildling Sea





    



   
Red flooding alert
along the coast,
again
but as with what befell
the boy who cried wolf,
we drink our coffee
and read the funnies
as the dune grass clinging
to the eroding slope—
the barrier between house
and the wildling sea—
gives way.



This poem is in response to Earthweal's weekly challenge for the "Global Commonwealth of Earth" and the theme of water. And d'Verse 's Wild Mondays  Even since I first wrote this, part of M-25 along the Lake Huron shoreline is in danger of falling into the lake due to unrelenting rain and gale force winds.


15 comments:

Anthony Duce said...

Enjoyed. Ebb and flow. Attention only when no longer can be ignored.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

We go on drinking coffee and reading the funnies as the inevitable creeps ever closer. So well said!

Susan said...

Yes, indeed, the story of the boy who cried wolf is coming to mind. Of course, in this case, there's been a danger all along, but it takes seeing to believe, I guess--or maybe when one lives behind a wall of money, even that sense is unavailable.

Brendan said...

One of the great challenges in a quickly warming world is waking fast enough to it to do something real about it -- Humans cling to their old routines and hope the problem will just go away. But it won't ... and watching these tides grow on the lake shore requires a bothered sort of attention, resolute enough to listen and see even if the information is sour. Thanks.

Carrie Van Horn said...

So very true and wisely spoken Yvonne. I think that people have become complacent indeed.

Mary said...

We have a lot of lakeshore erosion too. These are definitely trying times!

Yvonne Osborne said...

Thanks for all of the wonderful comments. This is a good conversation for us to be having.

Frank Hubeny said...

Nice description of the barrier and the wildling sea.

Victoria Stuart said...

The "red flooding alerts along the coast again" is such a sign of our times. And we numb and distract ourselves with coffee and funnies. Lovely, what you can do with 44 words!

Kim M. Russell said...

‘The Wildling Sea’ is a wonderful title for your quadrille, Yvonne. The scene you describe is very much like the situation here on the North Norfolk coast, with coastal erosion, crumbling cliffs and houses slipping into the sea, which gets very wild up here, especially at this time of the year with the spring tides.

brudberg said...

The sea will take a lot from those who are closest... and climate change plays a role. Wonder if Mar el Lago will be swallowed.

Yvonne Osborne said...

Frank,
Thank you!

Victoria,
It's getting to be so ordinary I think people are getting complacent. Thanks.

Kim,
Thank you and thanks for hosting "Wild". Love it and the connection to folks like you across the pond.

Brudberg,
Don't we wish. That would be some kind of wonderfully wild justice.

De Jackson said...

Ohhhh, how I LOVE that "wildling sea." YES.

purplepeninportland.com said...

A wilding sea is one to pay attention to. This is beautiful and informative, Yvonne.

Yvonne Osborne said...

Jackson,
Thank you!!

Portland,
And thank you so much for coming here.