What if the ocean caught on fire?
Suddenly burst into flames.
Not like one on the stove,
or a candle on the dinner table,
but something that resembles the end of the world.
The flames swallowing the Earth and licking the sky
and you’re just standing there
at the edge of the beach
with your toes in the sand,
and now every grain feels like glass
that’s cutting into the soles of your feet
that feel like they’re burning too.
The tears you shed turn to steam
that disappears before your eyes
that watch the world disappear with you in it.
Suddenly there is no sun,
there is no moon,
or maybe they’re there
or the fire got them too.
But the world is burning,
crying out to you in the form of ashes and smoke,
and you sit there: hopeless.
On April 28, 2010,
the Gulf of Mexico is set on fire.
The ocean is bronze and black
like there’s a dragon hiding
beneath the surface.
The triumphant smoke rises from the flames
and fills the sky.
It shields the sun, and, for a second,
the birds are unsure if this is Earth anymore.
They have known no other world-
we have known no other world.
This feels like a nightmare,
and all you can do is wait for it to be over,
but there is no sign as to when that will be.
Written on January 24, 2019.
JORDAN SANCHEZ 
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