The cawing of seabirds 

And the crashing of waves 

Fill my ears. 

But it is silent. 

The sky is a stroke of a brush. 

Golden, magenta, rose. 

But it is dark. 

It is the same as it was, 

But different now 

I remember a time 

When rust and iron challenged the waves,  

like a matador challenges a bull. 

The state came as a mediator for this challenge. 

Hope was their motto 

Hope for a clean beach 

Hope for clean air 

Hope for the Rhode and all its Islands 

Hope for humanity. 

Where is the hope now? 

Now that the ocean rises 

And does not recede. 

Now that white tails 

Outnumber white heads 

In their hope they forgot 

Why we should be hopeful. 

Hopeful for the sun to fall and the stars to dance. 

Hopeful for the birds to sing 

And the pheasants to croak 

Hopeful for the crabs to scuddle. 

Hopeful for children to see all of it. 

We twist the knife 

And it twists us with it. 

Back and forth we fight 

The earth until we can fight no more. 

We have suffered from our prosperity. 

Was it worth it? 

Was it worth our trial now? 

We stand before a judge 

Guilty of matricide,  

And we face these charges. 

What are we hopeful for? 

We have forgotten what it means. 

Our world did not forget us. 

Hope is the anchor of our soul 

Place your hope in people, 

Place your hope in the world. 

We are one in the same. 

Look out at the canvas 

Look at the sunset, not with superiority, 

But with kinship, 

And hope.