Tenerife

TENERIFE Two lovers by the ragged strand once trod the sooty sand; slender maid with raven hair, fisher boy of bronze; the dazzling sun a gold doubloon, the moon a silver coin. From rocks, ink-black as witches' cats, they saw the teeming sea; for Paraiso Beach was cast for them by Teide's fiery blast, 'neath Milky Way in wind-blown spray where whale and dolphin play... Faceless fools from far-off lands soon found their paradise. "Commercialise then urbanize, the mountains are for sale. Bulldoze, landfill, then jerry-build; sewage on the surf. Roll out roads for traffic roar; monoxide in the breeze. Machinery tear at prickly pear and green banana trees. Throw up bars and apartment blocks; bedim the stars with flashing lights; fill the nights with keyboard beat and dancing feet to drown the ocean's anguished cries ..." Her sculpture scorned, her flanks defiled, the lady Teide broods - with hissing sulphur in her breath, inferno for a heart. Such feelings pent, her rage must vent to blast the curse and re-create a silent land, where lizards laze and prey birds ride the balmy breeze, while a ghostly girl and fisher lad go gathering wild herbs. cc CG Teide = a volcano in Tenerife - rhymes with lady