Angry men ill-disguised as Natives dumped 342 chests of tea leaves
into Boston Harbor, and Sam Adams sent messages about taxes
to England's King George. No one invited the cod fish to a tea party
in what settlers called the Atlantic, which the fish called home.

No one pretended that Natives drank tea, though they did
welcome codfish, clams, lobsters, but not tea brewed in salt water,
only a little less ugly than the flensing of whales at sea,
the offal flung overboard, precursors to garbage scows.

Still, we sin against the sea and its citizens--the stench
of oil spills, the utter ugliness of plastic islands. No wonder
water strikes back--flood, drought, too much, too little--
and still fish, whales seals, and such have their opinions.