What Man Hath Put Asunder
The venerable queen of the whole Pacific Ocean
sat upon her Mermaid Throne toying with the notion
that the creatures of her realm should make an application
to create an underwater independent nation
to make their world more stable, in short to try to foil
those who drilled into its depths, searching for more oil
with which to poison both the world above and here below.
Already, she had seen them disturb the status quo
and flood her realm with poison thick and inky black,
destroying things that afterwards they had not put back.
Those creatures of the middle world between the sea and air
thought they were entitled to all that flourished there.
What nature had reined in they nonetheless felt they could alter,
wild horses freed from stables without benefit of halter
or reins or any saddle with which they could control
the forces that once gone unleashed began to take their toll:
gases leaking into air, oil inking up the water,
ice caps at Poles North and South beginning to totter.
There seemed to be no help for it, for humans seemed inept
at maintaining order in a world so loosely kept.
And so the seabirds washed ashore and the dolphins perished
because creatures of the middle world had not maintained and cherished
that miraculous balance which nature had established
and were loath to change their course ’til all of it had vanished,
thus wiping out all humankind so Nature could start over
reinventing sea creatures, then blossoms, bees and clover
that those feckless humans had sought to kill in vain,
as this time she’d leave humans out of Nature’s chain.
Prompt words today are venerable, mermaid, application, entitle and stable. Gas, help and ink are the words for the TTC challenge #608. Photo of oil slick by Daniel Olah on Unsplash.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Well said, as I feel guilty for my part, but then we are all guilty. Now if you win the lottery you can loan me 30K to buy an electric car~!
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Yes I agree. Me, too, although I’m trying at least to recycle and take my own shopping bags. As for an electric car, don’t know if that is possible in Mexico. I guess I should check it out.
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It is almost not possible in Texas. The stupid Conservatives are against what is good for our enviroment. You can not buy a Tesla in Texas. You can look at one and order one but it is delivered out of the state. This may change as they are building a plant here. But just today they passed a law that you must pay at least $400 per year just to own an electric car~!
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Ah I see now who this is…There’s a magic little button in comments that says “User info” that reveals who the “Anonymous” and “Someone” commenters are.
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I give up I have tried several ways and it always gives me a similar problem. But as far as I know it is only your site that is doing this.
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Story of my life. I am also the only one who always gets a busy signal when I call my friend’s phone–although it isn’t busy. A glitch in my Karma.
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Well now maybe he has a button giving the busy signal~!, I sometime scratch on the phone and say “got to hang up now, the phone is making too much noise” I do have two email address sources one with google and one with “pobox” plus the one with WordPress, each has more than one address. Like I said there have been glitches with Google charging me for a service I did not need or want, when I pulled the plug on that, things started happening, and I am just too overcome with this infection in my body, that is making me too angry with everything including the internet. Still raining here and I just found out that another test showed more infection in my body, so must go back into town to get stronger antibiotic pills~!
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So sorry. It is the pits going through Medical stuff. I got so tired of it I just stopped going to doctors.. I know I need to be responsible and go again soon but it’s been nice not having 3 appts. a week.
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Very important message
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I keep preaching to the choir, but the ones in charge don’t seem to listen.
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Unfortunately, that’s true.
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Nice having friends who agree, though.
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Oh I do agree and I wish more and more people read what you and others are writing.
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Wow. This is hard hitting and should be.
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I was forced to give up my car, so was Mr. Swiss, We both had an accident. He was already approaching 80 years old and I have my problems with MS. So he was no longer driving and eventually I gave back my driving licence before it was taken for two months and I had to take another test. The strange thing is it works. Perhaps I am lucky with having good support from online deliveries from the supermarket. I and Mr. Swiss both have our own electric scooter which keeps us mobile. We no longer have wishes to travel the world and live in paradise for us, out in the country with as many cows as people and the next market town just along the road. Perhaps we are just lucky, but we are content with our new way of life. Switzerland does not have an ocean, just a few lakes, but even those we manage to pollute.
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Switzerland is one of the most beautiful places on earth. My husband and I both loved it and on our 9 week motoring trip through Europe we spent the most time in Switzerland. I think life is meant to be lived in stages and to cling onto one stage means sacrificing the next one. Retirement can be glorious if we don’t expect the same things and activities that we pursued when we were younger. Your life sounds wonderful to me.
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A very strong message to protect our world before we destroy it. The typo on the fourth stanza second line makes for a laugh too! Great message, great poem!
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Ha! I had changed “stallions” to “wild horses” but didn’t check close enough. I tend to make changes every time I read a poem, even after publication. I should be more careful, however, and perhaps stallions was a better choice anyway. I’ll probably change it back in some future reading. Thanks for pointing out the error. Always appreciate that.
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The trouble with writing is there are too many ways and words to do it with and so every read through makes us change it.
My poems and stories are always littered with errors. What with dodgy diction and editorial blindness I have no chance.
You’re welcome, I didn’t want that one to ruin your beautiful poem.
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I always appreciate it when others help point out my glitches. Do you feel the same way? I’m always hesitant to point out errors in case others see it as a negative comment.
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I try to be the same way. Ih truth, having had so many bad experiences with editors and publishers, I struggle with editing and criticism a lot. I often feel like an editor is trying to take my story from me one word at a time. Like each error is a failing. It’s something that is stopping me succeeding for sure.
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Amazing and so true.
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It seems there’s no closing the barn door after the horses have left!
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You can go after the horses, herd them up, drive them in and then close the barn door!!!
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That’s too easy!
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You ever tried to herd horses, gal? How are you feeling???
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Hah! No, I haven’t tried to herd horses! So far I’m feeling good — next infusion June 10 — we’ll see after that! It’s getting hot here (91 today), though, and I’m not looking forward to a hot summer!
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A great message, Judy, but as you noted in a comment, those in charge aren’t hearing it.
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Sad.
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Wonderful poem! Oh, that we would listen!
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Thanks, Regina. I need to think of additional ways I can reduce my imprint.
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I like how you imagined us as the middle world denizens, because of course the air and seas have their own. And we managed to screw up all three! I do hate the attitude that everything on earth was “created” for humans to exploit. We’re never satisfied with enough – always need MORE. Ugh.
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