Mr Hunt: Save Our Seas, Day 7

White Pointer Shark

 

Lithe and free-swimming, the white shark is born

to a realm full of wonders – the sun-spangled deep,

where long fishes glitter, where waters are warm –

ever to wander, and never to sleep.

 

She’ll lurk in the darkness, just beyond sight:

the queen of the ocean, the awesome Great White.

 

The seals and their newborns swim out in the dawn;

a lone pup is drifting too far from the rock.

It’s then she streaks in with a lunge and a yawn,

the water erupting. They scatter in shock.

 

She breeches through seagulls and petrels in flight:

the queen of the ocean, the awesome Great White.

 

By a strange understanding, the shark and the seal

shared the wild water before we were here;

with drum-lines and spear-guns and hearts that won’t feel,

now we come plundering: both disappear.

 

Invading her realms, we kill out of spite:

the queen of the ocean, the awesome Great White.

 

So now the decision is all ours to make:

do we love the wild ocean, or hide behind fear?

Will we nourish and cherish, or pillage and take?

Our hand’s on the tiller. Which way will we steer?

 

Will we learn to pay homage, give thanks for the might

of the queen of the ocean, the awesome Great White?

 

Poem by Giles Watson, 2015.

 

Done