Island

no man is an island,
yet we are individuals...

islands with their own looks,
sounds, thoughts and feelings

and so many of them locally
are manning islands alone

alone on islands of man's creation,
some of them, many of them, are salty

and the people populating them
are salty themselves

salty in composition,
salty in disposition

salt in the water they carry,
salt in the food they eat,
sat in the currency they once held

and what is the salt now?
and what is the value?

value is what decide it is,
and we decided to have paper value

and on paper is how we prove
our individuality, our island-ness

this island Earth is an oasis in the universe
for life just as an oasis is an island for thirst
in a sea of sand...

yet at the same time
beneath the feet of every salty one
is oil in shale and the salt water
protecting it

the fracturing of the pocket,
fuel from in utero,
the salt we trade now,
the new value we decided upon

and it is said oil and water don't mix

the mixing of metaphors go far deeper than that

individual islands on the oasis island
valuing and devaluing the chemistry that
they are subject to

such is the value of this life and this death

Reviews

[Kay]

I found myself nodding and whispering "hm, well said" several times while reading this poem. I love the triangular effect in your message of widening perspective from beginning to end, which you carefully establish. It starts out with the narrow top of discussing man, then finally branches out to the large base of life and death. The connection between the stanzas as the scope of understanding evolves is nicely done. =)

[Kenneth The Poet]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked this. I surprise myself sometimes in how I construct these.