Dugong Die
by joan Wednesday, Sep 4 2019, 9:18am
international / poetry / post

the dugongs are dying
off the coast of Mary B
the river that once fed the sea grasses
now covers their green with grey and brown
slime,
how easy to break the sequential chain
of life

an emaciated sea cow and her calf nudge the slimy mud
with their noses and eat the remnants of flowing tidal grasses
laden with a slow toxic death

white pointers are attracted by dying white
sea mammals once thought to be
mermaids as their mammaries
align like those of women --
who is able to save these creatures,
surely not the humans that poisoned
the river for profit?

the sharks feed while they can not realising
they would eventually fall victim on the tree
of extinction which branches extend
to one day reach the source of all nature's ills

far into the unknown future
what will grow and bloom
like the long human hair
of women swimming under water,
pulsing and suspended
by rhythmic wave currents
with net bags tied to their sides full of
empty sea shells that spiral like the galaxy
in free floating pregnant space