The Aral Sea Poem by Almas Assylbekov

I haven’t seen your shores
And touched your surface.
You’re still on the maps, as though
You’re the last drop on a face…
When my son asks me to tell
Him about your waves,
Should I say you had to swell
Cotton fields tho’ it was unsafe?
I cannot even believe
You were large and so deep…
But today you gonna leave
Only sands and rusty ships.
Documentaries show you
In your glory, nothing more
To display your rich blue.
I’ve never admired your shore.
So, I will tell to my son
How you dried up like a tear
On a cheek under the Asian sun
My Aral, on the maps, but not there…