With various Oceans in the world around
And less of land and solid ground
71 % is Ocean and 29 % is land to be exact
That is the reality and the startling fact
Unfathomed are the waters, deep and blue
How does the Ocean matter to me or you?
As a matter of the Earths Biology and Chemistry
The data on Oceans is no longer a mystery
Oceans are the lifeblood of planet earth and mankind
As here is one of the greatest ecosystems we can find
Carbons are removed for the air and buried deep in the Ocean
In turn, the marine plants give back to us the required oxygen
The Ocean is the planet’s most important climate regulator
As it absorbs the ultra-rays from the sun and solar factor
Which in turn gives the atmosphere a cooling effect
Otherwise the world would be too hot to inhabit
The evaporation of vapor from sea is recycled back as rain
Without which our life on earth would be so much in vain
Our Oceans are magnificent and represent a scenic beauty
The breath-taking views serve their tourist attraction duty
The atolls, the lagoons and the white sandy beaches
The crashing huge waves and the dazzling marine creatures
Oceans are a safe and direct route of travel for ships and boats
Which is convenient and cheaper without a need for expansive roads
The Oceans are naturally part of an aquatic sporting arena
Where yachting, sailing, scuba diving and snorkeling are a winner
The Oceans are a hub and powerhouse with various economic activities
Where wealth is derived cheaply and aplenty with little difficulties
In fact the Ocean is like the headquarters of the World Bank
Where all the worlds’ assets are sitting within a large tank
From large scale fishing, pearl and seaweed farming
Gas and oil extraction and as far as minerals from mining
Cooking salt is derived from the oceans and is therefore iodized
Arid nations have sea water purified for drinking after it is de-salinized
The range of economic activities derived from the Ocean is manifold
But with the depleting state of Marine resources, what does our future hold?
Thousands of people have lived without love but none without water
As every drop counts but having an Ocean at your mercy is even better
A healthy Ocean means that we have a healthy, thriving nation
As it is the Ocean that provides us with a chunk of our daily ration



An Ocean is rich and full of resources and is a great asset
Without which the world would be poorer, just like in debt
From the Highlanders, the city folks and the coastal dwellers as such
We all need the Ocean somehow or the other and very, very much
Resources of the Ocean are of course very limited
So use it wisely and just take what is sparingly permitted
Climate change aided by our misguided actions is taking its toll
The smaller island nations are drowning together with the atolls
If offending life on land would vanish, the creatures in the Ocean will flourish
If life in Oceans were to perish, the creatures on land would die malnourished
We need the Ocean more than what the Ocean needs us
We cannot survive alone at the neglect of the Ocean thus
That is why the Ocean matters so dearly to me
Can we all put up our hands for this “me” to become a “we”?
So that the Ocean remains intact and in good health
And we can keep on living off well from the Oceans wealth?

Mr. Condiment Man

he arrives around 10:30am,
after the morning rushers and multiple malingerers
have surrendered to the clocker's red glare stare,
the little dictator of time that rules lands far and wide,
and the lunch crush is but a restauranteur's faraway dream

most days, to the last counter stool, he beelines,
the most least desirable seat in all of diner-land,
adjacent to the noise of kitchen,
and its associated higher risks perilous,
a two way swinging door "entera-ance,"
a residency to be avoided most studiously

though hardly a corner for one to go unnoticed,
by virtue of its iffy existence,
unless one likes the increased chance of
being a  victim of a crashing accident,
Mr. Condiment Man goes in and out, silently unremarked
but very noticed

in our land of spacious skies and amber waves of plastic,
customarily any "regular" is happily accorded a
rousing Sousa welcome, but that mistake now twice made,
is a historical hurry up-to-be-please-be-forgotten incident,
and the Condiment Man's cloaking invisibility second only to the
NYC's Famous Actors seeking breakfast amidst the common people

no words are passed, no pleasantries are planted,
the rule of incommunicado silence, for both sides now,
most happily observed, like a UN peacekeeping boundary

quick appears Cream of Tomato soup accompanied by
ever multiplying handfuls of packages of Nabisco
crackered packets, freshly fracked, with a ketchup Heinz handy,
a soupçon of five iodized salt shakes in the soup then interred,
salt released from the prototypical glass shaker whose universality usage seems to be a Federal law o' the land

the meal in silence arrives,
silently but oh-so-slowly-consumed,
it's extenuating circumstances lengthily enhanced by intermittent deliveries of additional cracking crackers,
and an occasional lip smacking,
and an unrequited unrequested unremarked
  "topping off" soup refillament,
this one act play presented daily
with a free tall glass of water in red plastic also refillable,
as needed

a play with no official ending,
no white topped, green lined, ripped from the ubiquitous diner pad, scribbled, billing ever presented,
but the loose change precisely, scrupulously counted then
upon the counter left, materializes by the hands
of the unacclaimed Mr.  Condiment Man,
which he sources from pockets various
in places where no pocket rightfully  belongs

you can set you watch by his timed departure
at five minutes of Twelve, he is no longer,
the play thus ended, the audience to feet leaps,
relieved and appreciative of the quiet man's drama
and his most excellent silent soliloquy

some strange human need satisfied and pleased
for all parties concerned, when the New York Times
revealed that this C.C. man left a 50 million dollar estate donated
to Meals-on-Wheels,
a fortune amassed by speculation in
condo's (ha!),

there was no shocked groaning,
only some perfunctory observing that frugality has its place,
and that this fantastick show, now closed, would be
sorely missed, for it had become a
condiment itself
a spice in the lives of so many


~
O.G.D.N.

some guy on the corner, living like his third world relative, wearing a shirt that says “the only cure is kindness”

a woman on the subway, fattened up on consumerism, flipping through the pages of her first read in three years-

“you are enough: and other ways to avoid overeating”

the shocks come in the form of niceties

bloodied, invisible war faces dishing out the l-word

drying up the n-word with their own iodized vocabulary.

places to go never served much for me save for the literal change of scenery

something else for my eyes to melt onto.

Columbine High School right off Pierce

If you squint hard enough,

I bet you could still see the linoleum sticky with blood and

feel, not hear, the primal screams bashing themselves against the walls

Fear smells potent enough that most of us can recognize it, and some of us crave it,

like a shark.

miles of ocean is nothing when your life wavers in the heat-

survival becomes nutrient-rich

don’t let me catch you salivating over it

I might just destroy you too.

Hope Cemetery

eat the rich

**** the dead

pass by the living in all their

sun-******* glory.

Dithers attempt to wrestle the silence cast out by a thousand stones

inscriptions lost all purpose, dates scuffed away by wind.

at night, each night past the full, bleeding moon,

he gets on his two bad knees and prays to God that his unloved family might become lovable,

that his mind may be forever closed to the idea of sin,

and that his throat may never feel the hot rush of alcohol again.

because who could judge the people who were victims of life’s potential?

who was to blame?

not the kind-men

not the prayers not the seekers

not the midnight drinkers

it was only the ones whose anger arrested them

and then the law

and then their own guilt.

summer was a severance

some time to grow too warm in the sun

disregard the ******* who leaned on faith with all their weight and pointed their skinny fingers at every disobedient child.

**** the cookie jar.

if it wasn’t me, it was the Noah’s ark worth of people that shuffled up and down that spiraled staircase each summer.

last full memory i was there

i saw some blue birds with balding spots, tethered in their concrete cage

which i opened silently as silent as my own breathing

as my rage.

and as i was scolded

the scorch of hot breath against my gooseflesh neck

i smiled, a fluttering one


because that freed one was kissing my eleventh winter.