You are a force like Victoria Falls,

Named for the Queen, yet more aptly

Called Mosi-oa-Tunya, “The Smoke that Thunders.”

The ground shakes as the water

Crashes one hundred meters down,

Carving chasms into the earth,

Plumes of mist rising above the sharp green cliffs.

You are a wonder like the Eye of the Sahara,

Volcanic flow shaping rock

Into a dome of rigid rings.

From space, the astronauts shoot

The blue bullseye,

Elevated above the shifting sands,

Dwarfing all in its gaze.

You are all-encompassing like the Uyuni Salt Flats,

So smooth that, after rain,

The surface mirrors the cloudless sky above—

Blue, blue, blue—

A realm where nothing exists but you.

But your greatness swallows me whole,

Like the gaping void of the Heavenly Pit.

I fall endlessly into your hellish depths,

Drowning in your ancient rivers,

Rotting in your dark dirt.

You dumped your garbage on my shore, but

In time, my waves will smooth and polish

The glass that once cut me.

Colorful glass pebbles will blanket my beach,

A mosaic of strength

And a testament of the beauty that follows the storm.

I will be my own natural wonder.