Living with Giants

Skyscrapers have grown along the harbour,

they look out to sea and across to mountains,

they do not tower like buildings in bustling cities,

more like those

painted up in seaside colours

on the edge of busy towns .

Here, it is not hard to touch the sky

as it reaches down to stroke roof tops

with a cool, fresh hand,

still, this  taller architecture

soars above older structures

built in other times.

So the people make their mark upon the surface of the land,

growth is slow

stealthy, incremental

as they remember

what they build on is temperamental,

a sleeping giant

who, at any moment might roll over, wake up

and kick the covers off,

stamp its feet and yell.

Now it deeply sleeps with

a gentle trembling snore, reminder

to build with care

those smaller spaces, within the space,

shelters to feel safer in,

interiors become smaller worlds,

they limit perception

a place to hide

from the giants that are beyond comprehension.

There are giants who sleep the fitful dream of a fretful child

and shake settlements into fragments,

blow them out to sea like scraps of litter,

suck them in and spit them out in the tide’s rise and fall,

but what else can be expected?

There is no choice but to live or die with giants.