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The sea's story
I can remember when life was good.
I swished and swashed through happiness.
I was the mother of all fish,
The dolphins were my jesters,
I grew coral like an Olympic gardener.
Boats rocked gently like eagles
Soaring through the midnight sky.
The whales were springs
Jumping high out of my depths,
Fish flapped their tails gracefully like Olympic champions.
I was as deep as a hundred skyscrapers.
The fish used to compete for food,
The sunshine glistened on my surface.
I ran through tough times,
Laughed and gurgled through happy times,
Tickled people with my great waves.
It was a sweet time, a gone time,
A time before factories grew,
A time before oil rigs were new.
I was no longer the key to happiness:
I had turned into a rotting stomach.
The grime was as thick as an elephant's skin,
And soon enough the fish died out.
No more competing, no more laughing,
All traces of laughter had vanished.
The oil was as black as the night sky
Where someone had taken all the stars.
The cans and bottles floated away unwillingly.
It was unbearable, it was ghastly.
I who have flown through centuries
Have been reduced to a sewer.
by Rachel Skinner
Read the story behind this poem
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