146. Fishbowl

by Joanna Parsons - San Jose/Ontario

Eric published an article
a prophecy of sorts, with the vision of a fishbowl place
In peril and sinking. Thousands to be lost,
pumps to be overwhelmed and
land to be quelched by overtopping waves.

Preacher preached a message. About heeding the warnings
God gives us
You can't put a city
next to the sea
below sea level.
and not think something will be

Zarina saw the sights
Kids at the aunts, a trip to the south where black men were plentiful
and houses were built on stilts

Family man told the tale
how he and his children got out
past floods and sludge and anything uncanny
"I aint going back, this place a fishbowl"
(and government got a fishbowl mentality)

Jimmy played the bass
The place of Jazz's birth
Hot humid nights under the club-smoke filled scene
as he thumbed the beat
years before it all went down

John Doe water engineer sat thinking
with a gun to his temple
"why you want to try to take your life
Mr. agency guy?"
(Cause I got the blood of 1100 on my hands).
And i had fishbowl mentality

Georgie said a prayer
as a chief in command should
a good heart with bad choices
to fight a war, or build the coast?
unwittingly in a fishbowl of red tape

`The Joneses family bought house
after hassles with government and a foreign place
they called home
No more ice cream trucks
on Humanity
and the wonder of coming back soon

I wrote a story
of a place I'd never seen
of streets I'd never walked and an aura
I never breathed
of a city I've never lived
but hope to see
rebuild, reborn
clean
without
the fishbowl mentality