I.
The night was as thick as melted asphalt
when her prehistoric form
emerged like a monument
in the sand
and each egg that descended
spiked the air with the scent of birth,
sweet, pungent,
and female.
Drunk with labor,
she could not sense the mass
of people that surrounded her,
the eggs that slid through her rubbery body,
or perhaps the knowledge
that, in minutes, she would abandon
them forever.
Who could know
how far she had traveled
or what force had pulled her home
like snare
in that death-black sea.
II.
Do they look for her
when they have pushed their way
through the grit and sand
or fumble for the safety
of her strong flipper
when all she has left behind is instinct
cold as the saltwater
that must sting their newly formed eyes.
Decades later, the few that survive
will rotate the earth with their memories,
the turbulent water pressing
against them like sadness
to return to the place where they were born.
And when they reach it
do they search for her
before entering that trance,
wanting to see that she, too, has come back
and has been waiting all this time
in the darkness.
Categories:
leatherback, absence, animal, betrayal, birth,
Form: Free verse
If there is reincarnation
and we get to choose another animal
I shall come back as a leatherback turtle
all humpback and proud
I will be eight foot long, and weigh two thousand pounds
Intimidating and formidable, I would stare down sharks
whales would marvel at my thick swimmers legs
I would swim my weight around in the sea
enjoying my days floating and eating
not doing math of any kind
Categories:
leatherback, animal,
Form: Free verse
I was once told a story, of the wee folk of Bensham Bog; they live in carved mushroom houses that are shaped like bullfrogs and they ensure the survival of creatures there. They travel in petrified skins of bananas and are rarely ever seen yet, they mix all of the peat moss and propagate trees. Coniferous trees like pine and spruce, larch and fir; trees that produce oxygen; negative ions for the air. Be thankful, these fey exist; if you see one at night; you’ll know because, they glow with blue light.
in the bog
trees thriving-
faeries labor
Wetlands help to keep a balance within our environment; their preservation is vital, this everyone should know. They provide iron deposits, lovely, translucent obsidian stone from which, early man, made himself tools. Flora, like water lily’s grow in bogs and thriving there, leatherback turtles, an endangered species.
a leatherback turtle swims-
crickets chirping
Categories:
leatherback, animal, children, fantasy, myth,
Form: Haibun
Leatherback, murray river, matama
Hawksbill, common musk and spiny soft shell.
Loggerhead, Atlantic green, alligator snapping
Turtles are we, in every country we dwell.
The largest sea turtle reaches eight hundred pounds.
A leatherback whose love for jellyfish abounds.
Alligator snapping is one fourth of leatherback’s weight
Uses pink fleshy flap of lower jaw for bait.
The difference in turtles fascinates me.
I can picture the loggerheads running to the sea.
No matter what country you decide to make your home
There is a turtle close by, even if it is in this poem.
Categories:
leatherback, animal, fun,
Form: Rhyme
There was once a Leatherback Turtle,
Who locals named ‘Mama Mertle’,
She like all her relations was prehistoric,
Still seen today, how euphoric,
She laid many eggs in the sand,
Not in the sea, but on land,
110 per lay, 9 lays’ per season,
And for an obvious reason,
Hundreds of babies,
Some Amies, some Jamies,
Now all hatched, scurried,
Instinctively worried,
How many would make the sea!
First ever prize,
For these tiny guys,
Is reaching the ocean,
With as little commotion,
Inherently feel, should remain alive,
And somehow have to survive!
Predators amidst, like crabs and fish,
And birds swooping for this tasty dish,
But our mother Mertle,
Is an untroubled Turtle,
Swims away, not at all anxious!
Mertle, forgets them, and so tiny,
Defenceless, vulnerable, highly,
Exposed to vicious attack,
Impossible now to go back,
So, far less than a quarter
Ever reach the blue water,
Afraid and on their own,
With no mother, all alone,
Take on the odds of survival,
Their unexpected, sparse arrival,
An absolute joy to their foe!
Categories:
leatherback, sea,
Form: Rhyme
Dream depth
Dreams are the Leatherback tortoises
lazing across the Caribbean’s;
the blue water and columns of sun.
dreams have seen the ruins,
the pieces of lost cities, Atlantis; buried.
Dreams have touched the fossilized white bones
of a father, a fisherman, who sunk.
The boy wakes up, runs on bare feet
towards the shore where his dreams are.
=© 2009 - All Rights Reserved Kushal Poddar
Categories:
leatherback, adventure, allegory, angst, caregiving,
Form: Free verse