By Mark A. Murphy
"…I saw there were no oceans left
for scavengers like me…" --- Leonard Cohen
A new dawn breaks over wave and tide
and with it, a new discovery
for the Pearl of the Indian Ocean
where fishermen are always fated
to wake up first. Dreaming
of catches and carcasses. Gulls, terns,
and frigates. Now washing up
on white sands, off the coast
of Colombo, where a capsized container
ship out of Singapore
oozes nitric acid, and caustic soda
into an underwater nebula
of bioluminescence. Glowing red-violet,
and violet-blue, in an oceanic nursery
of stars.
Mark A. Murphy is a self-educated poet from a working class background. His last book of eco-poetry, Ontologistics of A Time Traveller was published by World Inkers in 2023.
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