Oceans ~ Savage Future

mixed media mosaic
59 x 39cm

Last night I dreamed a strange savage future
The world had warmed and most had died
We lived with camels that lived on spiny cacti
Whilst we ate dates, goats and salty cheese

The land is seared and burned so we must swim
A fetid ocean that teemed with fish in my youth
Now only dreadful, Godless creatures live there
Bred by scientists to gobble up our awful waste

With good but flawed intent they created new life
Mindless of sowed seeds of dreadful doom
Swapping genes and installing gleaming chips
Gobbling fuel in their great whirring machines

These engineered fish now are feral, escaped
Uncontrolled they eat metal and glass and oil
Mimicking beauty with patterned shining flesh
They flash into the bay cutting water with a whine

Boiled and limpid under the burning noon sun
We must swim there, to escape the fizzing heat
Gambling their lives some shrieking feed the fish
They eat our waste but now eat the wasted people

Martin Clark

The mosaic is made of all manner of rubbish including stuff from the bottom of boxes in two scrapstores, including plastic toys and plastic knitting needles, and a computer keyboard.
Also included is debris from East Lothian’s beaches, including a fish shaped lure.

This is the left-hand section of my Oceans diptych. See here for the right-hand section. https://www.katygalbraith.co.uk/pictures-and-mirrors/746171_oceans-beautiful-past.html

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