Is she gliding or soaring?
Each beat of her wing-like flippers
propels her massive weight
with its gleaming black carapace
through the trackless ocean
with movement as graceful as flight.
Something beyond reason
guides her a thousand kilometres
to the sandy island of her birth,
to waiting males, mating,
labouring up the beach,
laying her clutch of eggs,
then dragging her great weight back
into the buoyancy of the sea.
Will she one year make her journey in vain?
Will male green turtles no longer
glide through the water near her island?
Is the incubating sand growing too warm?
Will then only females hatch
to run the gauntlet of crab, bird or dog
before they reach the swell
and the empty refuge of the sea?
READ MORE
Great Barrier Reef: rising temperatures turning green sea turtles female [The Guardian]
Neil Creighton is an Australian poet whose work as a teacher of English and Drama brought him into close contact with thousands of young lives, most happy and triumphant but too many tragically filled with neglect. It also made him intensely aware of how opportunity is so unequally proportioned and his work reflects strong interest in social justice. Recent publications include Poetry Quarterly, Poeming Pigeon, Silver Birch Press, Rat’s Ass Review, Praxis Mag Online, Ekphrastic Review, Social Justice Poetry and Verse-Virtual.
Photo by Roy Niswanger.
