Long Seapoets Poems

Please Save Us Manatees

PLEASE SAVE US MANATEES
     By The Poets Listed After the Poem

Practically perfect people in speedboats tease us manatees.
Long ago, as “mermaids,” we could swim the seas free as the breeze.
Even though propellers have replaced natives' canoe paddles,
A manatee's underwater world need not leave him rattled.
Swimming slow through shallow waters we're not looking for a fight.
Each one of us is trying to live free from this man-made plight.

So we glide below the surface in our one-piece swimming suit.
As we splash along, with no G-string thong.  Wow!  That's really cute.
Vibrations we send you, saltwater salutations please heed.
Endangered you call us we're thrilled; safe passage is all we need.

Under shallow sea my little calf died fish hooked in her feed.
Scar so deep by human's deed, my baby gone in red-hot bleed.

Months of cold weather, inland, slowly, we travel warm rivers. 
Allure of warm waters, drifting, feeding, no chilly shivers,
Now, the government wants to remove our protective label.
As if toxic foe and loss of mild winter was a fable.
Tell our painful story now, by written word or moving song,
Each passing day our prospects dim-our future may not be so long.
Every person can take part. So, one and all please share your heart.  
Save us manatee take action now.  Search the web; find out how.


CONTRIBUTING POETS in alphabetical order:  Charmaine Chircop, Carolyn Devonshire, 
Robin Gass, James Marshall Goff, Barbara Gorelick, Sean Kelly, Ruben Ortellao, Patricia 
Prescott, and Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen

I would like to dedicate this poem to Carolyn Devonshire, whose favorite animal is the 
manatee.

Link to SAVE THE MANATEE Action Group.http://www.savethemanatee.org/action.htm
http://www.savethemanatee.org/talte.htm
http://www.savethemanatee.org/ta_miami-dade_mpp_8-09.html