Lurkers of Languid Waters

Twilight falling - gathering men Their nets are cast Fucking money brings them all here Illegal harvest of eels Shadowy and traveling through the Darkest nights of May, for dangers line the pathway Migrating up waterfalls and streams Then through wet meadows they writhe - they’ll do anything to survive Their journey’s cut short - stuffed into bags Handfuls of cash swapped for glass eels No remorse, no morals Fishing these eels to extinction To Hong Kong Eels are brought Dying in mass Enshrouds those still alive Who made it through the night Survivors amongst their kin But only for now They’ll be sold again

Pollution contaminating our waterways Toxins spreading and seeping from distant lands Aggregate in runoff and concentrate in this world The lakes, streams, and seas Lying in wait amongst the murk Lingering whispers of forgotten days Settled into sediments Are persistent organic pollutants Ingest. Circulate. Magnify. Struggle to survive. The Mother’s gift of precious life is now twisted by toxin’s persistence. Contaminate mother’s gamete - deposit in which threatens these fish Recruitment declines. Poison of mankind is imbibed. Mistakes of our past haunt, steadfast. Forebodes. Again…and again…and again…and again…

Swirling, ebbing, flowing - are the currents of the aqueous bodies Connecting continents and nutrients - separated by unfathomable vastness Ecosystems are dependent on this predictable cycle - and feasting upon the bounty which the currents provide The Holocene has been a tranquil time - of previously untold stability Stability is coming to an end - homo sapiens are disrupting the climate Climatic shifting severing predictability - threatening to alter the very currents integral to our world Anguillids depend on these currents to breed - their future murkier than waters in which they writhe How will it all unfold? Will the currents stay the course? Or will it fall apart - throwing the world into chaos For human kind depends on the predictable gifts of the tides Anguillids and humans Need this to last The balances of resources has become delicate and perilous Leptocephalus under duress - what else should we expect? Their fate’s on the edge of a knife - slip off the blade, none shall survive The Aqueous Goddess of Currents brings nutrients and life - but spurn her, and all that is all denied Point the damning finger of blame at fucking climate change. Fan the flames of extinction and death as we crush them with an iron fist.Swirling, ebbing, flowing - are the currents of the aqueous bodies Connecting continents and nutrients - separated by unfathomable vastness Ecosystems are dependent on this predictable cycle - and feasting upon the bounty which the currents provide The Holocene has been a tranquil time - of previously untold stability Stability is coming to an end - homo sapiens are disrupting the climate Climatic shifting severing predictability - threatening to alter the very currents integral to our world Anguillids depend on these currents to breed - their future murkier than waters in which they writhe How will it all unfold? Will the currents stay the course? Or will it fall apart - throwing the world into chaos For human kind depends on the predictable gifts of the tides Anguillids and humans Need this to last The balances of resources has become delicate and perilous Leptocephalus under duress - what else should we expect? Their fate’s on the edge of a knife - slip off the blade, none shall survive The Aqueous Goddess of Currents brings nutrients and life - but spurn her, and all that is all denied Point the damning finger of blame at fucking climate change. Fan the flames of extinction and death as we crush them with an iron fist.

Drain the life out of wetlands Death spreading out from man Develop ugly fucking scars Deep in pristine everglades Machinery takes turns raping Wildlife and their sanctuaries Eels are disappearing They’re losing their languid homes Without a place to fully mature Populations are in decline Dam the streams for energy - good intents gone putrid fast Giant barrier to water and that which it contains The catadromous and anadromous fishes Depending on traveling up and down these now-dammed streams The only way to escape - past the walls of the dam Turbines must be braved - the spinning blades of death Dismember and mutilate - many eels are laid to rest Disregard and obfuscate - the dire negative impacts Things are getting better Logic starts to prevail Wetlands are being restored Removing humanity and the impure Indicator species Making their glorious return Sediments removed Sacred swamps revived Dams are being destroyed Conservationists now rejoice Death by turbine blade Becoming a rarer eel fate Fish ladders help them climb Where dams still reside Progress is still needed We must ensure that science is heeded

Cradle of the Sargasso Sea Filled with sargassum algae Calm blue waters stretch for eternity A nursery for the babies a graveyard for their kin Fertilizing the sandy floor Their lifeless bodies spawning forth Vast algal growth - brown autotrophs Peaceful sanctuary where concerns are nary Four currents meet and together create North Atlantic Gyre - a windless place Serenity… Serenity…

Eaten into obliteration - the result of tradition. Combined with modern technologies There is nowhere that we cannot reach From streams to the abyss of deep seas Slaughter the young during eel migration runs Crash their populations that were stable for generations The sights from years long ago are now just a memory of a ghost Never to be seen again - unless we change our food habits as humans The spectacle was magnificent Magnificent… Now we are in a time where we must decide Will we eat these animals to extinction Will we overcome our insatiable appetites and greed? Will future generations curse or praise our actions? Let science guide us, a torch in the night We have to fix this and finally do what’s right We must stop the harvest - give them time to recover Their numbers are so scarce it’s a matter of now or never We can not keep pretending that everything is okay More than just eels, planet earth has been betrayed But there is hope if we can care and make changes Right now is our time It won’t be easy, but it’s necessary

The race to the sea is beginning again To plant a new seed with the current against The guiding moon gives light to the water Of traveling beings without a mother They arrive in Europe from the Sargasso Sea This is the only world, it's the way of being From sea to river, from the long road From the Atlantic waters to the Po Far from the extreme, far from the fire Far from the darkness of the abyss Far from the Marianas - but now also far from the Azores There are boats, there are lands There are coasts, there are sands And the guide is no longer just the moon Rest will come very soon They arrive in Europe from the Sargasso Sea This is the only world, it's the way of being The sight of the sea, restart again They arrive in Europe from the Sargasso Sea This is the only world, it's the way of being Thy current push again and pull out the air The river doesn't seem to carry very far Guardians exhale yet another deep breath The sea seems like a mirror reflection of the sky Associating as a state of dust in the universe The sand around becomes extremely white The current push again and pull them to the sea The sun here seems to be like the worst enemy The spirit free that really seems to be The guideline that moves from the Sargasso Sea

From the beginning of a life From eggs that carry the life of the future From those who die to give birth From the slow times of evolution Born from those who have overcome entire continents Death for an enormous effort The greatest nomads of the water are born They cannot move and cannot perceive The current will carry them around the sea The abyss welcomes through the great darkness After a year, the current leaves room for free movement The sea is the passage of life The sea is the passage of life The gargantuan darkness that allows salvation Of those who wait for the moon to feed themselves To feed themselves Entire oceans to cross (to feed themselves) Hidden under the sun and predators under the stars An eternal path under the waters Between the dams and the nets, many will die in the name of whim For the satisfaction of the superficial And of the tradition that has become ignorance. Those who survive the sea enter the rivers And many more will perish Others will go out of the waters This is the land of youth Where the sky is closer and the abyss is farther Months pass, years pass Life is a cycle, the skin changes And the abyss will call again… Hidden under the sun And predators under the stars An eternal path under the waters Where the the sky is closer And the abyss is farther Life is a cycle The skin changes And the abyss will call again For the continuation of existence And the abyss will call again The end appears from afar Anticipating the sun Light up a land with no nets And no more cuts A result of years of sorrow A time so dead and hollow Without us the dawn of a new tomorrow Nature sings its great victory after destroying the last factory The grass grows back from the ground And everything goes back how it's meant to be The last farewell to the authors of destruction And to the the God who failed his creation No one is unbestable by natural selection Neither moralism nor corruption The chorus of the earth echoes through the centuries After the years of his fury Rebirth from the ashes of a whole world