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.
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