Sea Levels

I will raise you, Kiribati,
Meedhoo, Sarichef, and Yap,
With the slag of ancient smelters,
Furnaces now eons-dead;
Where in heavens they once flickered,
Ashes to far spheres have spread.

Men, mere ants who scrape and carry,
Cannot know the harm they do
Till these edens they have buried,
These and hundreds more have sunk;
I shall resurrect you always,
Elevate you chip by chunk.

You will rise above the waters,
Rise with phoenix-flame and smoke,
Stretch your astral tendrils higher,
Climb like trumpet vines and tower,
Bloom like frangipani flowers--
Let the drowned Manhattans glower.

Though the world be scoured by tempests,
Swamped by tides and atomized,
I'll remake you from that muck,
Mason you with temple-blocks,
Grant you permanence with words,
Words more adamant than rocks.