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The Mores of Morays

Why would God give moray eels
A life wherein they live concealed
In a beautiful, bountiful, rapturous reef
Merely to cause the nearby fishes grief?
When the moon and stars shine deep at night
Giving profiles to fishes in background light,
The morays watch and wantonly wait
Until their prey cannot escape.

Are morays just spokes in God’s wild wheel?
Do moray’s consciences not guilt feel?
What is their purpose? What is their ploy?
Is it just to consume those they destroy?
Where is their justice? Where is their joy?
What gives morays the right to annoy
Nearby fishes and affect their fates 
While they wantonly lay in wait?

Why would God create such evil creatures
When others’ fates fear their cruel nature?
And why keep morays in ravishing reefs? 
Do these evil eels provide the reefs relief?
Is a mindless moray like an inane man
Who bends people’s mores when he can
To languish their lives and besmirch their souls
Just to achieve his iniquitous goals?

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Mark Springer

Date: 2/28/2024 1:18:00 PM

The poem is fun, and asks good questions. And it manages to rhyme and have a good structure. Glad I read it. -- Mark S

Steven Getz
Date: 3/29/2024 10:20:00 AM

Most of the poems that I write rhyme. When they do not rhyme, it is because I did so on purpose to achieve an effect. This poem reminds people that even in beauty, there is always danger. As you know, Mores and Morays sound the same and are pronounced the same. Hence, the wordplay.

Hilda Greenhough

Date: 2/28/2024 12:50:00 PM

I can picture these eels smiling, while waiting for the next fish. I love this poem. I find fish tales fascinating. A pleasure to read.

Steven Getz
Date: 3/29/2024 10:17:00 AM

Thanks, Hilda.

Steven Getz

Date: 1/9/2024 12:04:00 PM

Thank you, Kim, one of my friends also found this poem to be profound, and he not a huge poetry fan. In the end, all readers of poetry are the true judge of a poem's worth. Even for me, this poem seems to come out of left field. The questions asked in it are profound. But they are what they are.