Barbara Peckham Poet Free verse

The Hungry Sea

The waves on the beach are
Gulping, slurping and chewing 
At the sandy shoreline.
The ocean is voracious.
Inch by inch, foot by foot
It eats away our carefully mapped
Continents and islands,
Devouring great bites of
Seaside dunes and cliffs,
Reshaping the land in one place
Spitting out the sand in others
To fortify an island, to add
Wider and wider shores to a land
A thousand miles away.
We build seawalls and jetties, 
We add revetments of stone,
But we cannot contain the sea,
Whose force can break
Great ships asunder.
From the sea rose the land, 
And over millenniums, to the sea
It will finally return.
And we mortals, whose birthplace
Was the great salt ocean will
Also return from whence we came.
Will the sea itself then disappear
And all return to fiery solar dust?

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L Milton Hankins July 31, 2021 at 6:42 PM Fascinating question, Babara. Yes, the sea is powerful, grasping, and reclaiming what is hers. I suspect we are going to see more tragedies along our coasts, including the collapse of more large condominium buildings. Barbara Peckham July 31, 2021 at 7:38 PM "You can't fool Mother Nature", as they say. No matter what we do as humans, nature will eventually have her way. Thanks again.