TOKYO BAY 1972: A dystopian coastal landscape

Above –
faint wisps of sky
with sleepy petrochemical clouds

Below –
mashes of cool saltwater
peppered with polluted brine

To my right –
concrete breakers and pine rows
in geometries of conformity

To my left –
motorists puffing cigarettes
as their engines chant petrol sutras

In this place
where fisheries
are now mass latrines
and container depots feed
hungry factories

HopeTM rises
straight from the butt


Daiki:   There have been improvements, but Tokyo Bay is still heavily polluted.

Bhäraté: (sighing) Yeah. A lot of the pollution comes from illegal dumping and micro-plastics.

Chariya: Merely creating new laws on paper is not enough to change human behaviour. To produce 
         a deep change, we must raise consciousness.

An-Yi:   (wistfully) It's a beautiful quest, but pessimists will say it's futile. Human consciousness 
         is still primitive in many ways.


=====================================================================================
from _Pan-Asian Pulses: Poetry, Art, and Dialogs about Asia_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:  Some thoughts about the environmental impact of ten million people on a fragile bay in Japan.
KEYWORDS: urban pollution, eco-poetry, Japanese landscapes, polluted estuaries, water pollution

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 1994 in Tokyo, Japan ≜ Finished: 2019 in Yokohama, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

< LAST    https://www.tnewfields.info/BambooGroves/108kyotos.htm
  TOC     https://www.tnewfields.info/BambooGroves/index.html
  NEXT >  https://www.tnewfields.info/BambooGroves/hiroshima.htm

TRANSLATIONS 

DEUTSCH:  https://www.tnewfields.info/de/1972bucht.htm
ESPAÑOL:  https://www.tnewfields.info/es/1972tb.htm
NIHONGO:  https://www.tnewfields.info/jp/tokyowan.htm
ZHŌNGWÉN: https://www.tnewfields.info/zh/dongjing.htm  (not created yet)