We grew listening to stories
of a past, a time when adventurers
explored the world by navigating oceans,
vast expanses of salted waters,
where hid the biggest mammals known
to mankind as blue whales surrounded
by myriad multifarious animals called fish
of which skeletons sometimes still emerge
from the golden sands of our desert lands.
We grew in a society deprived of hope,
curiosity and drive, only myths to explain
what minds refused to conceive, blaming gods
for the disappearance of sapphire seas.
No one would dare search for the remnants
of our ancient Earth, no one wanted proof
of its evolution gone wrong, in fear they might
have had some responsibility in the process
of terrifying pandemic desertification.
Now we have grown some of us are willing,
have engaged in a lifetime journey, to travel
the endless roads seeking a glimpse
a drop a grain of salt convinced
that somewhere still, a pond of ocean might
exist.
[Featured painting: Desert Speed by James Jia Xu]