Oil Spill

Note this poem was written some time ago but I was sick and deleted my site. I have been patiently reposting my poems since 9 October 2000. On November 13, 2002. The Prestige, one of twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, in northwestern Spain. No help was forthcoming and by November 19, the ship split in half. 20 million gallons were spilled into the sea. Beneath the heavy dark clouds, the storm broke. An oil-filled tanker sank spewing black lakes of murderous slime. What a giant "Prestige"! Despite the roar of untamed waves there was a deadly hush over the ocean. A low death knell sang a purgatory of pain, as contaminated birds of gulls, orioles, kestrels squawked their last dirge: What a giant "Prestige"! Too late men stretched their ingenuity, a desire to save and spare the livelihood of so many families that sailed the oil-spilled seas, where baby dead fish dotted the surface, sands and rocks tainted with death. Elsewhere engineers burned their chemical gases and smoke escaped from the earth's fragile shell. We all have our "Prestige"! Written 2016