Love letter from the Pacific to the Atlantic

 

Dear Atlantic, sweet sister,

My gull flies over the continent that separates us.

She flies west to east carrying a message to you:

I love you.

Sea of Atlas, you are my alternate,

my otro lado, my conjoined twin;

We meet at crown and base. Born together,

yet I’ve never seen your shimmering face,

and we are dying together, drained not of water

(our waters will flow over), but of life:

Eels, seals, whales, and walrus.

Coral, kelp, and krill.

Mangrove.

Mar Pacifico was the Portuguese name

Magellan dubbed me, but  

I remain yours,

Pasiphiku mama qucha

 

Dear Atlantic, dear sister,

How are you? Mi wayri yiide ma.

We’re drowning in shit here.

It pours hot out of the pipes as polymeric

trash drops from barges wherever

the wasters gather. There’s an

island of garbage afloat in my middle.

Dump and drain.

North and south,

glaciers shed colossal ice

chunks that plunge into our

oceanic bodies.

We internalize them.

Dear Cuan Siar,

we are of one corpus, you and I,

Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa and

Atlantshaf,

Ulwandle,

Dear Okun,

Okun,

 

 

 

 

Notes:

Pasiphiku mama qucha is Quechua for Pacific Ocean

Mi wayri yiide ma, "Long time no see" in Fula—Niger-Congo language

Cuan Siar, is Gealic for Atlantic Ocean

Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa is Maori for Pacific Ocean

Atlantshaf is Icelandic for Atlantic Ocean

Ulwande is Yoruba for Ocean

Okun is Zulu for Ocean