Battleground

The birds flock down
Downwards
Towards the water
Then back up
When they feel the heat

The birds know something's up
Before the people swimming do
The subtle shift in temperature
Affects the wind under their wings
Before the water starts to feel
One way or another

The people in the water
Won't notice the boiling
Until the bottoms of their toes
Start shooting messages
Up, up out of the water
Saying 'Move, move'
Something right
Is now wrong

What was once a paradise
Is now a battleground
And the war isn't fought
With guns and tanks
But with sharp looks
Throat-clearing
Foot-tapping
A 'Hurry-up-let's-go' sort of thing

Nobody notices the first harsh word
Or the first sharp intake of breath
Or the way the water swirls around and around
When someone says 'Okay, we're done
Day's over.  Let's pack up and go.'

But nobody moves
Because it's too hot
It's already too hot to move

So then there's yelling
And splashing
And the birds are going higher
Because they can feel the warmth
Even a hundred feet above the surface of the water
So they fly and they fly
Until they can feel gravity suspend itself
And then they coast over the reddening
They see happening beneath them

Did you say this?
Did you say that?
What did you mean by this?
What did you mean by that?

By the time the beach is cleared
The toys are put away
The sandwiches quickly eaten
So as not to go to waste

It's already a hot zone
The boiling point has been reached

The beach is a battleground
And what the water can't carry away
Gets buried deep
Deep
Beneath the sand