• The swiftly soaring shorebird sings
    Of lonely outcroppings and barren rocks
    That she once spied, wandering on the wing.
    She remembers the blowing blues
    And those woefully wandering mariners,
    Washed into the wallow of a whale,
    Swallowed whole, splashing and lashing,
    Met by the mighty monster of the murky depths.
    Crumbling castles she beheld,
    The crusty earth collapsing into the singing sea,
    Caught by the wet embrace of the sighing sands,
    Fortress now for eel and elephant seal.
    Created by coral and constructed by crab,
    Pretty delights from dolphin and porpoise.
    Stingray and shark keep safe the reef,
    Attack those who threaten their treasure,
    Piratizing this priceless palace of the sea.
    Now new palaces are put upon the sands,
    Rampant high-rises rivaling those below,
    Their blank stares belittling the beauty under the sea,
    Wrecking the reef; now barren the ocean-bottom.
    And sadly the shorebird sings, swinging high,
    Over concrete crosswalks and empty echoes.