Nowhere was a sign!
Was there?
They walked away carefree
Impending danger unattended
Escapes, returns with vengeance.
Glaciers melt
Floods rise silent
Names of cyclones
Names of vessels gone down
Names on tombstones
Clear; in the rains.
Walls painted new
Of community kitchens
Smoke, rises, names of homeless
Mud, rocks, soil
Covered them
Names unknown
Numbers mattered.
Graphs in many colours
World in lines and bars
Screaming the sea arrives
Waves usher salt, more tears
Shores redrawn
Islands counted
Waters tested; calculations made
Loses recorded; percentages varied
World knew itself in
Names and numbers.