regret for Liberty

Imagine Liberty beneath the sea,

a daunting view of history; yet,
it was plain to those who foresaw

the predicted rise of the Atlantic thaw.

Her torch might only burn in glints of the sun,

in waterborne pollution, or dimly in
the craven rusts of a chemical-ed ocean;

 Oh! The great torch of Liberty
adorns cold-blood and mystery.

The warnings heeded by far too few, mindless

and those who slept genuinely knew, the sea grew

before the unbeliever’s too. Blindness

can be temporary or contrived,

for there were few if any that thrived  so much

as those whose Midas touch held black gold.

They grew not wise but simply bold, and

in legends that they retold, it was every one other

that stood in need of greater forgiveness—

but the deed has left us  with less, on a narrower strand,

dry land with deep  regret for Liberty,

lost and found ...beneath the sea.