Our Loss
Sheila Grieco
I dream of crystal waters wide
Colored blue ‘neath unspoiled sky.
Gentle, peaceful, warm and soothing
With all its sea life ever moving.
Now awake, tears fill my eyes.
I ache because I realize
It’s just a dream and it is gone.
No one but God can know how long.
A Rorschach inkblot fouls our shore,
Threatens bayous, our bays and more
Sea life snuffed with blackened crud.
Our Coastal life can lose its blood.
Now all I hear and visualize
Are saddened souls with wretched cries.
Their tears can never wash away
The damage that’s been done today.
Sheila Grieco of Ocean Springs, MS, is a member of Gulf Coast Writers Association and has had poems and short stories published in The Magnolia Quarterly. She is also a member of The Mississippi Poetry Society – South Branch and received third prize in a state competition of The Mississippi Poetry Society. She earned an honorable mention in a literary competition by Writers Unlimited for a short story titled The Christmas Caper. She can be contacted at [email protected]
The Spill
In 2010, when the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill exploded and threatened the way of life that Gulf Coast residents know and love, West Florida Literary Federation offered an outlet for expression. During the six months when the uncapped well gushed, and for one year following the successful capping of the well, writers, poets and photographers from across the country sent us their words, thoughts and feelings, thereby providing a literary record of the Deep Water Horizon environmental disaster. Here are the best of the submissions.CONTENTS
Photo Essay
A Tale of Two Beaches: The BP Oil Spill, Before and AfterProse
Nirvana No MoreWe Need New Legs
Watching the Beach Workers
The Daydreams of a Believer
Viewpoint
The Last Swim
Poetry
HUCKSTER (OIL SPIEL)SLOW DROWN
Pensacola Beach
Our Loss
He Got His Life Back
Haiku
THE REAL QUESTION
EXPLOSION OF THE BP MACONDO OIL WELL
Brutal Performance
Black Gold
B R I T I S H P E T R O L E U M
Dangerous People
All Is Not Well & Other Unpleasant Realities (Courtesy of BP)
Four Haiku
But, especially,
The Blackness Carnivals
Mississippi Coast Lament
Tarballs
Reaper Screaming in The Gulf
Capped
spill
DON’T TOUCH OUR PROFITS
ONLY A MEMORY
DAY FORTY-FIVE OF THE DEEPWATER DISASTER
THE ENERGY POLICY ACT
Black Death