[This poem was selected to be presented at the Fourth Annual Master’s in English Regional Conference (MERC), Feb 10, 2024]
Tearless Solimões
dedicated to all living organisms
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tiptoe, tiptoe, the carbon asphalt is scorching in the city, and the river waters are like fires in the forest. Dead-fried fish by the dry Solimões River[1]. Should I call it a stream? The heart of the Amazonas is tearless now, with blind stomachs and hungry eyes. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tiptoe, tiptoe, our planet is gradually mutating, and the Earth is riding on the UberGo. It is not a Hollywood thriller but an unknown, slow-motion, violent scene — the Anthropocene[2]. This slowness gets us confused and forgetful. Tearless insensitivity exists among few, perhaps those with too much fresh food to save and those with extra perks exclusively reserved to refresh themselves. — Well, it is not yet possible for everyone to order food from a phone! Are people getting blinded by the egocentricity of the modern age? Tick-tock, tick-tock, tiptoe, tiptoe. Over a hundred and fifty pinky botos[3] were extinct, contaminated carcasses cooking on muddy Solimões: a tearing sentiment, not-so-good tidings. Solimões River has never been so sad. Fresh water is not only for fish. People like us need to drink, eat, sleep, grow, love, labor, live. The people living near the riverbanks now walk across the river’s sandy bottom without a bridge. Solimões feels like a creek, heartbroken: it can’t swim its fish, it can’t feed its people, it can’t canoe down its houseboats, it can’t bring its children to school, it can’t get healing to the sick. Solimões feels indeed like a creek. It is essential to consider if everyone has equal rights, right? For how long will we breathe fresh air every day? River waters drying, ocean waters rising. How long will green nature feed my soul along my journeys in life, in places in the world I still wish to go? The colorful birds’ precious gems, my body washing in the waterfalls, drinking from crystalline river waters, smelling the tropical rainforests in the air, and discovering wild plans to halt diseases. Still, learn the correct way the Ticunas[4] cultivated rainforests. For how long do I need to witness destruction? I don’t want to see wars producing human body walls of all ages and sexes, disputing lands and fuel, drinking salty water, treating people like sandbags, making them lose so little they own, including the memory of dearest ones washed away with tears. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tiptoe, tiptoe. How long will we see the sunrise every day? All I wanted was to remember everything. I am a living organism and can only live with other living organisms. I hope the ticking sound we hear now is only a late clock ticking. The ticking sound that I fear is the size of a giant mushroom, a pressure cooker. Sorry, Solimões, you are still our pulmonary vein. I wish you some rain.
[1] Solimões (Portuguese pronunciation: [Solimões]) is the name often given to upper stretches of the Amazon River in Brazil from its confluence with the Rio Negro upstream to the border of Peru. The Solimões flows for about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) through a floodplain about 80 km (50 miles) wide.[1]
[2] The Anthropocene (/ˈænθrəpəˌsiːn, ænˈθrɒpə-/ AN-thrə-Po-seen, an-THROP-ə-)[1][2][3][failed verification] is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth’s geology, landscape, limnology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.[4][5] The nature of the effects of human activities on Earth can be seen, for example, in biodiversity loss, climate change, biogeography, nocturnality parameters, and changes in geomorphology and stratigraphy (sedimentological record, fossil record, trace elements).
[3] The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), also known as the boto, buffer, or pink river dolphin, is endemic to South America and is classified in the family Iniidae. Three subspecies are currently recognized: I. g. geoffrensis (Amazon river dolphin), I. g. boliviensis (Bolivian river dolphin) and I. g. humboldtiana (Orinoco river dolphin), while the position of the (I. araguaiaensis) within the clade is still unclear.[3][4] The three subspecies are distributed in the Amazon basin, the upper Madeira River in Bolivia, and the Orinoco basin, respectively
[4] The Ticuna (also Magüta, Tucuna, Tikuna, or Tukuna[2]) are an indigenous people of Brazil (36,000), Colombia (6,000), and Peru (7,000). They are the most numerous tribe in the Brazilian Amazon.[1]