We can’t say we’re unhappy you took our place. From one oil to another:

Thank you.

(That was a tongue in baleen joke. do you. get it?)

We know you, we knew you. when you bloomed faithfully

Across the waters. in spring and in fall.

Your seas higher and wilder, your days shorter but still

Across the millennia you fed us Through the circulation of time

and oceanic plates we knew you

what they call American oil to distinguish from

our

Multioceanic origins

though you too are everywhere

No one sees you and your long dark rainfall onto the ocean floors

Your blooming and receding. just the right amount of pressure and light

Capitalism, a philosophy of extinction -

past released into present

A world turned inside out still

All their artificial light trapping birds and moths and bats

Turns them back to the sea.