Sunday, February 15, 2015

Dec 28, 2004, a post on andamanicobar@yahoogroups.co.in; revisiting the tsunami of Dec 2004

Dec 28, 2004
Water and a Tsunami

Like a giant falling,
The earth lost its step.
Ten meters down the ocean floor fell.
For thousands of kilometers a brutal jagged incision.
The earth revolted as if hit in the solar plexus,
Its three stories high waves, worse than killer whales.

From our shanties Oh Sea Goddess,
We worshipped you,
The matriarch you presided over our lives,
Like children we lived of your bounties.
Why then did you avenge against your own.

Those who pollute your womb with oil and tar,
You have not harmed.
Who, in distant lands, insatiably feast on your jeweled fish, pearls and coral,
You have made wealthy.
Who channel their toxic effluents and plastic into your home,
You have shielded, by distance.
For, those who produce carbon dioxide and raise your temperature,
You have forgiven,
For those who plan development projects (of oil prospecting and ports)
Along your shore,
Their sins you have ignored,
For those who test their nuclear weapons in your atolls,
You have made powerful.

It was my low roof home you swept way.
My little wooden boat, bought on a loan.
My seven months old baby girl, whom I hoped would be a doctor.
It was my community of humble poor your smothered.

I see you colluded with the Elite Gods of the Earth,
Who have pushed us to the fringes of their existence,
To live on shifting sands,
So they may easily erase the dispensable me.

Oh Mother Sea,
Your even hand of justice I do not see.
28-12-04
Lillian D'Costa

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