Lynne GoldsmithThe Bleaching of Coral Reefs, AKA Polyp Animals
Animal Rights Poetry By Lynne Goldsmith From All-Creatures.org

Poems of compassion dedicated to the non-human animals who share this planet with us and the people who fight for them.

The Bleaching of Coral Reefs, AKA Polyp Animals
By Lynne Goldsmith

Fading color of exoskeletons,
hardened carbonate mineral
of tentacles feeling for—

zooxanthellae you expel,
your partner under water
under sunlight

into the thinning out
marine life not thriving
depending on no longer

the feeding, the spawning,
the nursery grounds, shelter,
these things are gone, going

into fading with forests,
the water’s well-meaning
air of seventy-percent

for humans breathing
to suffocation in warming
to the instability of acidity

to the coral reefs of animal
dimming by humans, touch
delivering much to destroy.

©Lynne Goldsmith, 2020

Coral reef
Image by joakant from Pixabay

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